Students often choose to revise topics that either they know they find interesting or perhaps ones that they already understand.  Working on the idea that you will have 10 hours at most to revise the whole IGCSE specification this holiday, this should be avoided if at all possible.  Use the “traffic lights” checklists in the revision booklets to target your revision within a particular topic.

Topics that boys often avoid revising (are some of these just a little dull?) but which examiners seem to like to test are given below:

• Deforestation and link with climate change
• Cycles in Ecology (Carbon, Nitrogen and Water)
• Natural Selection (you can almost guarantee there will be a question on this)
• Genetic Engineering (pay close attention to the syllabus points about specific examples and ethical objections)
• Variety of Living Organisms (Classification) – there are loads of specific details about the Five Kingdoms with specific examples:  go through this section of the specification really carefully!
• Food – balanced diet idea and the specific vitamins mentioned in the specification
• Air pollution – sulphur dioxide (acid rain) and carbon monoxide
• Fermenters – how to grow bacteria and the specific conditions needed
• Fish Farming – remember someone in the exam board loves fish farming!  Make sure you understand the specific details of how the fish farm is set up and the potential problems:  this tiny part of the syllabus has been over-represented massively in the past few years:  please take care to ensure you don’t get caught out by another fish farming question…..

The basic message in this post is this:  your course is not IGCSE Human Biology so make sure you don’t just revise for this!

Keep working hard and tweet me with any questions or make a comment on this blog post.

PMG