Biology grades lower than every other subject - Y10

[lurchersforever]

DS is in Y10 and considering studying medicine, which I know is incredibly competitive. Even if he doesn't go into that, he loves science and definitely wants to go into something in that area.

I've just had his report and also another set of test results and biology is a real outlier, and has been all year. He's 7+ for everything else but a 6 for biology. In actual tests this year he's had 8s for all chemistry, 8s and 9s for physics and 7-9 for maths. English, history and RE have all been 7-9 throughout the year. He has never had higher than a 6 in biology.

Obviously he's doing well, and 6 is a great grade but I wonder why biology is so much lower than the other subjects. He revises for all science subjects by using the CGP books and doing the practice papers at the back and always says he feels secure in his knowledge and feels the tests go well.

There's no parents' evening until the end of the year so I'm looking for insights here - is biology harder than the other sciences. He says the mark schemes are incredibly specific. Any thoughts would be great.

Check that the cgp book you are using matches the exam board he’s sitting.

Print a set of actual past papers for his specification and board and the actual mark scheme and have him work through them then mark them together, updating his notes to reflect any content the examiner wanted to see that he hasn’t got. Then you can get a realistic grade estimate using grade thresholds from June 2019 or June 2023 (the years inbetween are artificially favourable due to Covid)

It won’t matter one bit that you aren’t a biology teacher yourself for this purpose.

Also in my personal experience biology is considered the easiest of the 3 so it’s possibly exam technique?

It could be the biology teacher is marking on current knowledge and not predicted grade and they haven't covered everything yet. Biology has an awful lot of material to cover and there are specific phrases and concepts that need to be included. I would consider it 'easier' than maths and physics because I'm good at remembering large amounts of facts and applying them. DH thinks maths and physics are easier because he finds it hard to remember such a large volume of stuff.

Yes that’s an interesting point, is he really scoring grades 7+ now on past papers for other subjects? Or are they predicted grades?

No, his predicted grades are all 6s and I'm not sure how they were arrived at as obviously this cohort didn't sit SATs. The school gives grades each time they sit a paper or do an assessment. I'm not entirely sure how they arrive at the grades and which grade boundaries they use, but it's a school-wide system and is supposed to reflect the standard they are working at at that particular point, with an assumption that if they maintained that standard throughout, that would be their final grade.

It could well be exam technique but it seems so weird that he doesn't have that problem with any of his other subjects. He has said he has lost marks for the way he has worded things and that there are key words he needs to use, but, again, seems odd that he is not remembering them and using them as he not struggling to remember anything else!

I don’t think biology is harder than chem or physics. Can you get him a tutor?

Hi OP, I teach science at GCSE level and Biology Post-16, have experience of supporting students into medical school. Just FYI if he can get a 7 in biology, that will help a lot with his medicine application, although a 6 wouldn't be an absolute barrier.

Some students do find biology harder at GCSE level, particularly if maths is more of a strength than English. Biology questions tend to be more wordy, and there may be more questions where he has to use a specific key word in a response or respond in a particular way to get full marks. Some students do struggle to interpret exactly what the question is asking. He may also just find the volume of content hard to remember.

In terms of number of key words to remember, you have to remember more words for the combined science spec than for a MFL GCSE, and a lot of those will be biology. If this is something he finds hard, it does make sense biology would be his weakest GCSE. However, this is also an issue at A-level, so it's something he probably needs to find a strategy for.

In my experience, chemistry is often the one with slightly lower grades across the school, but individual students usually find biology or physics hard due to their individual strengths.

If you have concerns, I would contact the teacher now- your DS should be able to ask for their email address or you could email the form tutor and ask them to pass it on? They may be able to explain why they gave that grade or if there are any problems in biology?

Does your DS have three specialist teachers for science? If he's not being taught by a biology specialist, that might also be a contributing factor?

It could be a case of “not seeing the wood for the trees”, maybe in the mass of I formation he hasn’t yet worked out which bits are important. The CGP revision guides are very good for this and would generally be enough to secure a grade 8 if the student knew and understood it all and had done past paper practice

Biology is known to be he hardest science, especially for students good at maths

Are they using GCSE questions and mark schemes as test questions? DS was like this in the run up to GCSEs and it was because the mark schemes were very specific in terms of what they wanted. He understood the content but described things in his own words, ie less precisely / scientifically.

Egs I remember - if capillaries get 'narrower', saying 'smaller' or 'thinner' lost you a mark. If water 'diffuses' across a 'semi-permeable membrane', saying it 'crosses' a 'membrane' lost you two marks. It takes a bit of time but by looking carefully at a few past papers and mark schemes he will figure out what they want and can include that as part of his learning.

Also checking how many marks each question is worth is a good tip. If it's 2, then there are two separate things you have to say to get both marks, saying one thing really well doesn't do it. If he can't figure out what the other mark(s) are for, I used to tell DS to ask himself why? or what for? after the bit he did know. Or if in dire straits, try and use as many scientific terms as he could in case one of those would trigger the next mark.

Eg (made-up, not real, don't come at me teachers 😅)

Q: why are leaves green? (1)
A: because they contain chlorophyll

Q: why are leaves green? (2)
A: because they contain chlorophyll for photosynthesis

Q: why are leaves green? (4)
A: because of the chloroplasts which contain the green pigment chlorophyll for photosynthesis

But you have to really figure out how to trigger each mark - for DS's board we found it was the same every year.
Here endeth the enormous post (sorry)

That is supremely helpful @Hughs

Thank you! @HipOrHop
DS went on to do A level biology and is at uni now, but I still know how to score all 4 marks on a WJEC GCSE osmosis question 🤦‍♀️

The examiner’s notes will be available on the exam board website and are well worth a read. They contain info like “give a mark for X, don’t give a mark for Y” which may be interesting for your son to read.
My dd did Biology at A-level as well and was always moaning about having to be super specific to get the marks.

@Hughs Thank you for this, I think it's exactly what is going on. As DS1 put it, DS2 understand the science so is frustrated that he's not getting the marks and then is feeling the mark scheme is 'stupid' (not what he's actually said, but probably captures the sentiment). He'll obviously need to get over that and start addressing it. He has a good memory with no problem learning the quotes for English and vocab for MFL, for example. He 'gets' the science too, so just needs to accept this is how it's marked and get on with it!

As the pp, Biology is all about the language and how you answer questions. Specific terminology is essential when you are looking to get > grade 6.

Unlike the other sciences, which are based of facts and mathematical approaches (equations, quant chem etc), biology needs a more in depth understanding to achieve the higher grades. There is a lot of knowledge to learn and it’s not normally completed until after the last set of mocks prior to the GCSEs.

Girls do tend to do better at the higher grades than boys at Biology, not entirely sure why. It does come down to the ability to understand the question and what it’s actually asking.

That said, I’d rather teach Biology that Physics or Chemistry.

You do need to be very careful even with the examiners notes for the markscheme. Biology P1 last year had an additional document to supplement the markscheme and it was an absolute b£&!h to mark. That document is not in the public domain.

It does literally come down to one word to prevent a student being a level 2 v a level 3 (4mks to 6mks).

That said, I had student who got 88 out of 100 for that paper, and when you consider a 9 was around 68/100……..