James’ VCE Study Tips: How to beat VCE Biology

What do you do when you see a busy VCE Biology diagram, filled with amorphous structures and seemingly nonsensical abbreviations? 

If it makes you want to cry, shudder, feel the urge to throw your Textbook/laptop around…I’ve been there. Sometimes, I’m still there.  

But today, let’s talk about strategies to overcome all the…challenges that come with Year 12 Biology and how to approach the VCE Biology study design to make sense of all the overwhelming content. 

Free VCE Biology Units 1 & 2 Worksheet Download

Test your knowledge with essential practice questions for VCE Biology Units 1 & 2.

Download now

Free VCE Biology Units 1 & 2 Worksheet Download

Fill out your details below to get this resource emailed to you.

"*" indicates required fields

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

Postcode*

Grade in 2025*

Grade in 2025123456789101112

Hidden

Resource (DO NOT DELETE OR CHANGE)

By submitting this form, you agree to receive promotional messages from Matrix about its products and services. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails.

Challenges I faced in VCE Biology

Information overload

VCE Biology is a lot.

CRISPR/Cas9 diagrams, cellular respiration pathways…often labelled with all kinds of weird combinations of letters.

Sometimes it’s not necessarily the complexity of the concepts in the VCE Biology study design (and they can be complex!) that makes it challenging. It’s the sheer volume of content you’re expected to memorise.

You’re already a fighter for choosing VCE Biology.

Distraction

Sometimes, that information overload leads to frustration, which in turn (for me) affected my motivation. 

Then you add on the mobile phone-centric world we live in? When you’re already stressed enough, and tired enough, you don’t need more distractions to stop you from locking in on the task ahead.

But for me, studying for the VCE Biology exam often required intense concentration. And that was tough.

How should I study?

The sheer information overload complicates things.

You can’t succeed in Biology without rote memorisation of certain facts. 

However, that’s not nearly enough to do well, either. So much of Biology is about deeply understanding a concept so that you can apply that knowledge to exam questions.

The people at VCAA love to throw in a curveball every now and then. Those curveballs can be answered, but they’ll still confuse you initially.

How I overcame the challenges of the VCE Biology Study Design

Mindset: Acceptance and positive framing

I think the first thing I would tell a Biology student is to accept that confusion is a natural part of learning the VCE Biology study design. 

Accept that confusion is an inherent, inevitable part of learning Biology.

Over time, that initial annoyance, fear, anger, confusion, and uncertainty will lessen, and you can reset and get back on task. 

Frustration from losing marks on SACs for small mistakes (maybe you used the wrong keyword or slightly misphrased your answer) comes from a natural, good place. To do great on a subject, you need to have high standards. And it’s better to make those “stupid” mistakes now than in the final VCE Biology exam. 

I’m generally not a big fan of using war analogies, but VCE Biology is at least a 9-month, if not much longer period of your life (what you remember from before Year 11 can make a slight impact too!). You’re going to feel so many ups and downs throughout those 9 months; you might get vertigo (just joking). 

Don’t let the ebbs knock you off course. Don’t let a suboptimal SAC score or a day you couldn’t understand anything knock you off balance. View every bump as a lesson well learnt for the final VCE Biology exam.

Keep fighting, fighter.

Keep yourself recharged

Your brain works better when it’s recharged. Your body works better when you are getting proper sleep and eating properly. 

Keep yourself mentally recharged too. If you’ve had a busy two weeks cramming for SACs, give yourself that night off afterwards to get into your flow and enjoy a hobby. 

Maintain this mindset throughout the holidays. I think a holiday where you don’t slow down at all is a holiday wasted. 

Now, that’s not to say you completely relax to the point of doing nothing. I’d recommend trying to fit in some work on the first day of your holiday, even if it’s just watching a couple of short Ted Education animations and taking some notes. Routine, and keeping up SOME level of routine helps so much with the year-long grind of the VCE Biology study design. 

BUT, don’t run yourself ragged during the holidays. Recharge. Do some things that you enjoy and get some good sleep. Then, try to fit in some consistent study around that.

Study Tips

You may have seen some of the ideas below on Reddit, or AtarNotes forums about acing Biology; 

But I think there’s a multi-step process to acing Biology, and there are different study strategies for each step of that process.

1. Step 1: Understanding the concept
2. Step 2: Memorising the concept
3. Step 3: Applying concepts to answer exam-style questions

Step 1: Understanding the concept 

A key part of this process is being able to comprehend and explain VCE Biology topics and concepts in your own words. 

The most common study strategy for this part of the Biology studying process is taking notes, but there’s more to it.  

Annotate notes with analogies that make sense to you and your interests. Maybe you’re making an analogy between Biology and your favourite Netflix show’s universe or a hobby. That’s what’s best for YOU. 

Search multiple textbooks, YouTube, and Google for diagrams of a concept, and find the one that makes the most sense for YOU. Or, draw your own diagram.

I like making mind maps of a few key ideas from a concept, too. A lot of Biology is interconnected, and mind maps can help you make those connections between concepts.

Step 2: Memorising concepts

It’s boring, but it’s unavoidable for certain parts of Units 3/4 Biology (e.g. Immunology in Unit 4, Area of Study 1).

A key idea here is Active Recall. By challenging yourself to recall things that you’ve previously learnt, you’ll strengthen neural connections and improve your long-term retention of content.

Active Recall techniques include:

• Flashcards: Great for filling in otherwise unproductive time such as on the train to school etc.
• Feynman technique: Where you try and write down an explanation of a concept as if you were about to teach it to a classmate.

The key here is to not refer to your notes and write the explanation from pure memory. After attempting active recall, you can then identify gaps in your memory. Maybe this means you need to find an analogy for a certain concept or crank out a few more flashcards.  

Step 3: Applying concepts to exam-style questions

This is about more than just finishing stacks of exam papers. Newsflash for your classmates who brag about doing their 45th past exam on the weekend: You don’t get bonus points for that!

Approach answering exam questions very systematically. I recommend making a database (in Google Docs, OneNote etc.) for exam questions you’ve attempted as part of school or at home. Each time you do a past exam question and get it wrong, add that question + WHY you got the question wrong to the database.

In Units 3/4 Biology, it’s not about wrong and right. There’s a science to answering VCE Biology questions correctly. There are various reasons one could get a question wrong (particularly Short Answer). You might have:

• Missed specific keywords or lacked some detail
• Written an answer that was a bit hard to follow and could’ve benefited from using dot points, numbers and arrows
• Had messy handwriting

By building a database over time, you can start to pinpoint certain parts of your exam responses that need work. 

When you’re attempting past exam papers in full, treat marking extremely seriously.

Open the examiner’s report and mark your responses patiently and critically. Was this response clear and sequenced well enough so a tired VCE examiner could understand? Are all the right keywords included? Don’t just rush marking and see what number mark you achieved on this past exam.

If you can identify your own areas for growth with exam response, you’re setting yourself up for success. 

— 

Year 12 in general is a year for hard work, but it’s still a year to enjoy yourself when you can too. 

Once this year’s up, there’s no more high school ever again. Make the most of it.

Free VCE Biology Units 1 & 2 Worksheet Download

Test your knowledge with essential practice questions for VCE Biology Units 1 & 2.

Download now

Free VCE Biology Units 1 & 2 Worksheet Download

Fill out your details below to get this resource emailed to you.

"*" indicates required fields

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

Postcode*

Grade in 2025*

Grade in 2025123456789101112

Hidden

Resource (DO NOT DELETE OR CHANGE)

By submitting this form, you agree to receive promotional messages from Matrix about its products and services. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails.