How to take notes in A-level Biology

Notes are really important.

There’s a lot of chatter online about the best methods for taking notes, what type of notes are most useful, and whether to use other people’s notes.

There are also a lot of harmful myths about this topic, so let’s step back and first think about why we take notes at all. It’s “what students do”, but why?

Why do A-level students take notes

This is a big question all by itself and worth taking a moment to think about.

❌ “Your notes remind you what you need to know for the exam”

Ok, yes they can. But wait, don’t you have a textbook that does that too? Are your notes as comprehensive and correct as your textbook? Would you buy a textbook written by a current A-level student, and if not, why not?

Notes are important at University because the courses are not as established as A-level; there are no text books that specify what should be covered, and the specification changes from year to year. This isn’t true for A level, where the course rarely changes.

❌ “Your notes show that you have done the work”

Many students think that if they turn up to every class and copy down notes from the board then they will get a good grade. Unfortunately it isn’t so easy.

You can’t take your notes into the exam with you, and they won’t be marked.

Every year, diligent students who got an A at GCSE by carefully copying down notes and memorising them get a nasty shock at A level. This strategy isn’t going to win you a top grade in an exam which is specifically designed to test your deep understanding.

🤔 “Your notes show you understand the topic”

Your notes won’t be marked, so does this matter? But - understanding the topic is your goal as an A-level biology student, so this sounds good.

Do they show this? Well, it depends.

If the notes were copied directly from the board without you thinking about them, then no, sadly they don’t. I could go into a quantum physics class and copy equations off a board but it wouldn’t mean I understood anything.

But - if the notes were written from your own personal viewpoint after having fully understood the concept, then yes, they can. I’ll write more in a minute about how this happens and why it’s worthwhile to make notes like that even if you then throw them straight in the bin.

But first, there’s a BIG problem that nobody talks about:

When to take notes

🏫 Taking notes in class

The first time you encounter a topic will probably be in class. This will be the first time that you grapple with the new vocabulary and concepts and try to make sense of them in your mind.

The teacher will (or at least should) take you on a mental journey that leads you to understanding. This is really important as textbooks don’t explain/teach things, they just .. say them. It’s different. You need to listen to and think along all the steps of the explanation to make sense of things.

The question people don’t ask is: do you have enough mental processing power to build understanding from the explanation at the same time as writing notes?

Can you write notes quickly enough that you don’t miss anything? Or are you overwhelmed, so you end up just focusing on copying from the board rather than actually thinking about the content and following the explanation?

A-level biology has a LOT of content (too much, tbh), so teachers don’t have the luxury of taking their time going through it properly. They have to go fast, and that can quickly become overwhelming.

If you just copy off the board, you’ll end up with nothing more than a worse version of what you already have in your textbook. It’s more important to listen and think.

💻 Taking notes during tutorial sessions

Tutorials are recorded, which is fantastic because it frees you up.

You can fully listen during the live session, concentrating on making sense ofthe concepts. Then watch the video back later, going through more carefully and taking notes. I’ve had some fantastic feedback from students using this technique. It turns out that learning biology is a lot easier when you’re not trying to write a textbook at the same time.

🖊️Making notes when studying at home

The best time to make notes is when you’re not in a rush, and can take your time to go through things properly.

Don’t worry about spending ages making them beautiful, but do worry about making sure you understand everything you’re writing. Beautiful notes that include errors, gaps, and bits just copied out of textbooks are much worse than ugly notes written by someone who has thought about the topics in depth. Nobody will be marking your notes.

Why students should take notes

I’ve written a lot of negative-sounding stuff. But actually, writing notes is great!! Just not for the reasons you might think.

✅ Writing notes is fantastic and great

❌ The notes have very little value

Wait, what?

So here’s the big secret that students never fully understand (maybe you can be the first): the important thing about notes is the process of making them. And I don’t mean just copying things from the board.

Think about it. You want to pass the exam with a good grade, right? To do that, you need to have an understanding of the topics in your brain. So, the question is, how do you get things into your brain.

If it was as simple as listening to a lecture and copying notes from a board, life would be easy. But it’s not. Science tells us that the only way to get A-level Biology understanding into your brain for later recall is to process the concepts in your conscious mind. You have to make the effort to really think about them.

Unfortunately brains are pretty lazy and will outright lie to you to avoid having to do that: “yeah honest we’re learning this, 100% trust, we’re good to go”. But it’s lies.

Forcing stuff through your brain

If you just read something, your brain will lie and tell you that you understand it fine. It’s only when you try to use the concept in a new way or write it in your own words that you realise you don’t understand at all. This is a really frustrating feeling but it’s better to find out now rather than in the exam.

Writing information down in your own way (not copying) forces your brain to process that information. It can’t fake it’s way around it. You can’t write something in your own words without, at some point, having understood it.

So, writing notes in your own words is really useful. Learn the topic, make sense of it, then organise that information on the page in a way that best makes sense to you. Make links to other topics (I can’t overstate how important this is) and use the new knowledge to make more sense of the old topic. Also make links to your personal experience (biology is great for this).

The difficulty you feel when writing high quality notes - that is the feeling of learning happening. And remember: the learning is the goal, not the physical notes themselves. Trust me, the world has more A-level notes than it could possibly need.

Now here’s the problem - in class, everything is in such a rush that you don’t have time to do that properly. But the system encourages everyone to try, while all that does is to make it impossible for most students to listen properly to the teacher.

Ok so I know this is upsetting but it’s important

Humans love to have proof of value, in physical form. We love getting medals for our achievement - for most people the achievement itself is not enough, we need some physical representation of it. And notes are held up as a physical representation of learning. But the problem is that often they are not. You can have beautiful, comprehensive notes, but not have learned a thing.

You need to focus on the process, to value the actual learning, which will not be seen or appreciated by anyone other than the examiner through the lens of your answers in the exam. And that’s how you get a bit of paper with your final grade on it that you can proudly show people as a physical representation of your achievement.

What to Write Down

Taking notes in class

In class, I would suggest you don’t distract yourself by writing down all the things that will obviously also be in your textbook.

Do write topic headings, so you know where you are. And then record useful study tips for your future self to use for when you are revising the topic - what misunderstandings did you have this time that you could avoid in future? What useful examples did your teacher use? What did they say that gave you a lightbulb moment? What links did they make to other parts of the specification?

And if you’re naturally a doodler who needs to doodle/draw while you’re mentally processing then that can be fine - just don’t let the doodling stop you listening. This is biology class, not art/design.

Highlighting printed text is a waste of time - close that book and start writing from your own brain

Making notes at home

Making notest at home is a great to way think your way through the information and concepts that you need to learn.

Don’t just copy stuff out - that’s pointless - you need to learn it. Then write it down from a position of understanding. Explaining something on paper is a great way to ensure you really do understand it and that your brain isn’t lying to you about that. If you can’t write it in a coherent, organised way, then it’s not available in your brain in a coherent, organised way either.

When you’re writing stuff out and you get stuck, that is brilliant - it’s a strategy for finding out where your understanding is weaker, so that you can focus your efforts on the right things.

And don’t worry about having a perfect notebook or making everything beautiful - that’s going to make it harder to actually study. Focus on the biology. Scribble stuff out if it’s wrong. Rewrite things more clearly. Draw that diagram again. Redrawing and redrafting information is a good way to get it going through your mind over and over again, so long as you’re thinking about how to make the concepts clear rather than just making it pretty.

Borrowing notes from your friends

Wow did you really get this far?

Ok so what do you think, given everything I said above?

If you borrow your friend’s notes and copy them down, are you learning anything? What is the quality of what you’re learning?

Yeah, it’s a waste of time. It will make you feel better, but feeling confident beyond your actual knowledge is a really really good way to get disappointed when the exams come. If you miss a topic, you do need to learn it, but your friend’s attempt at creating a textbook during class isn’t going to help you with that. Check out your textbook to see what you need to learn, find good quality explanations online, learn the content, and write your own notes.

Then throw your notes away, whatever, it doesn’t matter. The important bit is safely stored in your brain - take care of it with a bit of ongoing revision and you’ll be all set to get a top grade.