How to get a grade 9 in GCSE Biology

In this article, you will find the key to achieving those top grades in Biology. As a teacher, tutor and examiner for several of the key UK exam boards, I have built up many effective strategies to scaffold success. In this article I will share some of these methods to include the need for planning your time (not just for revision), familiarity with your specification, dedication to fine-tuning exam technique and finding the perfect study resources to help you to clarify and consolidate your understanding of the material. If you can get into good habits now, you will find that you can excel not only in GCSE Biology, but also in A Level Biology and even further into university study.

How do the exam boards decide the grade boundaries?

Although examiners each year try to ensure that the exams are a similar level of difficulty to the last, there will be a small amount of variation. It is important that students are not penalised for these differences, so every year senior examiners from the exam boards and the qualifications regulator meet to decide the grade boundaries. 

They do this by comparing a sample of papers from the current year with a sample of papers from the previous year to check that the required standards for each grade are consistent. Standardised grade boundaries are then applied to the exam paper. This means that grade boundaries vary from year to year depending on variations in difficulty in the exam questions. A statistical formula is also applied to ensure that a certain proportion of top grades are allocated to the cohort.

What does a grade 9 look like? 

GCSE Biology has a notoriously large quantity of information that you will need to get your head around. This content is spread across a variety of different topics, and students are required to know and use specialist keywords, while also being able to apply these new ideas to real-life and everyday scenarios. 

Examiners will be looking for depth and breadth of understanding in order to award any student a grade 9. Building this level of comprehension comes more naturally to some, but there are ways to break it down into more manageable chunks. 

So in order to be one of those students achieving the top mark, you will need to put the work in. However, there are methods to make this easier or more efficient and once you are clear on your methods, the whole process can feel a lot less daunting.

Planning your time

It is common to think about making a study plan only when it comes to revising for an exam. However, in my opinion, this leaves it much too late and makes the course feel overwhelming.

Instead, I would recommend trying to develop an overview of the specification at the start of your course. This will help you become familiar with the course structure and subsequently aid your memorisation of the topics that will be examined at the end.

Use your textbooks

In my experience, a great way to familiarise yourself with course topics is to look over the contents page of your textbook and make a list of the main topics and the subtopics within them. Having this overview will help you also follow your progress. Why not tick off the topics as you cover them in class, or highlight any tricky topics that you want to revisit at a later time? It is important not to simply put a topic behind you once you have completed the classroom learning. Instead, you should see all topics that you cover as part of an ever-growing list for revision and application.

Specifications tell you what the exam board expects

Another way to develop this overview of the course is to use the specification. The course specification sets out the expectations of the exam board. However, most specifications are not very easy to follow, so you may wish to search out a “student friendly” version, which includes a simplified list of the specification points that you need to cover.

Plan for revisiting topics later

Once you have an understanding of the scope of the course, you should think about how you plan to keep up with the course while also continuing to revisit the topics that you have already covered. You could do with a diary or a calendar for this bit! 

• Many studies have shown links between what’s called “spaced repetition of learning” and the positive effect on long-term retention. This means that your recall and understanding can be supported through the introduction of gaps in your learning as well as the opportunity to revisit the information to consolidate the lessons. I have found that students really benefit from revisiting one topic a week alongside their new learning. 

• Revisiting could mean answering topic questions from the textbook or, if you have time, making flash cards of the key points. The aim is to remind your brain of what you learnt before your brain forgets it! You can get some tips on revisiting techniques in the section below.

• This is particularly useful in Biology where topics are not always independent of one another. For example, diffusion is usually taught somewhere near the start of a GCSE course, but the process has a relevance at various other points throughout GCSE Biology, e.g. in gas exchange. Keeping the information current means that application of the same information in new scenarios will come more naturally.

You might need some input from your teacher if you are planning to create your revisiting schedule in advance. Remember that your teacher may not plan in the same order as the textbook or the specification so it’s best to check with them first.

Classwork tips

There are a lot of classroom hours between you and your exams. These are all important, so the number one tip for getting the most out of your class would be to make sure you have no gaps in your notes! 

Discuss and question

Being in the classroom gives you the opportunity to talk to other people about your studies, whether that be the teacher or fellow students. Don’t underestimate the value of working through lessons together and make sure you use the resources provided! If you are unsure about something, your teacher may be able to explain in a slightly different way which will help you to access the rest of the lesson more comfortably.

Don’t get behind

Most importantly, if you miss a lesson, you must make sure you catch up. Find a friend who writes their class notes in a similar way to you (you are more likely to follow what they have written). Once you have copied up, talk it through with them to see if you have grasped the concepts correctly. Alternatively, the revision notes found here at Save My Exams will provide the detail you need to catch up with your class. The best way to consolidate your understanding is to try and explain it to someone else! You can test this out on family members or friends.

Revision or Revisiting techniques

Everyone is different in their preferred methods for revision. It is important that you find the revision method that works best for you as you can put it into action throughout the course for each mini-test or assessment. You can read more about our recommended revision techniques from our own revision expert here (ADD LINK). 

Exam Technique

When it comes to sitting your exam, there is more to it than just regurgitating what you have learnt. The exam paper has its own language and you should ensure that you are comfortable with it before you walk into the exam room. Consider the following:

Command words

Do you know what each of the command words is asking you to do? The table below shows some command words commonly used by different exam boards and their meanings:

Different question types

Can you tailor your responses to accurately tackle questions of different styles? GCSE Biology exams may include a mixture of question formats, including multiple choice, short-answer, extended response, mathematical and data analysis questions. Each requires you to use different skills to provide an appropriate response.

Look at the mark value

In Biology, the mark allocation is usually a good indicator of the detail required in the question.

Keywords

Biology has a lot of keywords. If there is one linked to the question you are answering, you should make sure you use it (in the relevant place). You will often see that keywords are underlined mark schemes. This means that they have to be present, and so top marks are rarely awarded if this important terminology is missing.

Practise, practise, practise!

Ultimately, the best way to learn the ways of the exam paper is to practise continuously throughout your course, not just during revision time. This is key to nailing down your exam technique in line with the exam board expectations. Using questions like those found here on Save My Exams allows you to access topic-based, exam-style questions at different levels of difficulty to really work on your exam technique.

Preparing for the exam and managing exam stress

Revision time tables

At GCSE, you are likely to have many subjects requiring your time for exam preparation. Don’t leave it too late, be structured and sensible, leaving time for breaks and downtime. Split each subject into blocks and allocate a time for each block but make note of those areas which you feel like you need more time.

Exam practise practise practise

At risk of sounding repetitive, this is a fundamental component of accessing those top marks. Practise answering the questions and using the mark schemes to mark your answers. Always mark harshly and learn from your mistakes.

Healthy body, healthy mind

It is important to make sure you are eating properly, drinking plenty and getting enough sleep. You will feel better if you know you have done everything you can to maximise your chances of completing an exam successfully.

Finding the right resources

For most GCSE courses, there is a whole sea of available information out there, but how do you know which ones you can trust? At Save My Exams, our team of experts produces revision notes which walk you through your course, including exam tips and worked examples to develop your understanding that bit further. Our exam questions are spread across different difficulty levels to scaffold your deeper learning from the word go. 

All of our resources are written with the following key features in mind:

• Course specificity - This is a priority for us. Each of our courses is tailored to a specific exam board and mapped to the specifications. This makes it easy for you to navigate

• Concise wording - All our notes are written with an aim to achieve maximum clarity with minimal words. We hope that this makes your learning journey more efficient, requiring less effort.

• Information separated into key topic areas - This allows you to work through the content and focus on the exam practice one topic at a time.

Final words

Getting a grade 9 in any subject is hard. It is supposed to be hard and if it’s not, then the exam board isn’t maintaining the standard of your qualification well enough!

But you can do it: you’ve got this! Remember, familiarity is key so make sure you have an understanding of your course structure and content, keep up with your lessons and work with your teachers and fellow students to iron out any confusion. Fundamentally, to reduce your stress on exam day, you must practise, practise, practise!

FAQs

Is getting a grade 9 in GCSE Biology hard?

While some would consider Biology to be a challenging subject with a large volume of material to learn, others find the content easy to relate to by drawing links with the living world around them. To achieve a grade 9 in Biology isn’t supposed to be easy, but with the right study techniques and methods in place, it can always be within reach.
If you want to achieve those high grades then you should be prepared to put the time in, keep on top of the learning and set time aside to practise using previous examination material. Be structured and smart about how you approach your studies!

What percentage is a grade 9 in GCSE Biology?

Each year the percentage required to obtain a grade 9 changes slightly. This is due to the standardisation procedure that the examiners and OFQUAL (the UK examinations regulator) go through in order to maintain the same standard requirements for each of the grades. This procedure means that if the exam for one year is considered more challenging than another year, the students may not achieve the same grade for the same number of marks gained in the exam. As a result, the grade boundaries will be lower for a more challenging assessment.

It is worth noting that examiners do attempt to write exams to be of a similar difficulty level each year, and so previous grade boundaries and percentages can be taken into account as an estimate of what to expect. For example, in Higher Tier AQA Biology papers between 2019-2022, the average percentage required for a grade 9 was 66%.