AQA

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View books by Michael D.P. Boyle.

AMAZING =) - Rated
I had read some of the reviews that other people had posted on this website and was a bit dubious to how good thew book was as many mentioned having to use additional notes. However although i did have additional notes for the last couple of days before my Jan 2007 exam on Module 1 i used only this book and feel like i should easily get an A/B in the exam. Although i know of people of lesser ability in the class who felt the book was not as good at explaining things they needed to learn, for anyone like me who knows their stuff already and is just looking for a quick brain refresher this is an AMAZING book 11 out of 10.

By the way just got my results 15/03/2007 and i got an A: 100 out of 105. And i would largely put it down to this book... happy revising

A useful study aid - Rated
I have just taken the AS module four exam and for the first time have used one of the Collins biology module guides for assistance in my revision. If you are deciding whether or not to purchase one I would very much advise you to go ahead and do so, as it contains all the topics that will be tested upon in the exam. However, I do suggest that you use it in conjunction with your notes as there are a few discrepancies which may be confusing if not spotted early. Also there are sections such as on the kidneys and eyes that are quite brief and so it is important to refer to your notes. Overall it is a very simplified view on the topics and allows you to grasp the basic concepts that run throughout the module.

Good, but BEWARE OF MISTAKES - Rated
I have used this book and the previous books in this serious for my AS and A2 examinations this year and have found them to be very useful.

HOWEVER there are several mistakes that have come to my attention. For example the book proudly states that the resting potential is achieved by more potassium ion moving out than sodium ions moving in. This is of course WRONG as the resting potential is achieved by more SODIUM ions moving OUT than POTASSIUM ions moving IN!

For this alone I am giving this book 3 stars.

One word - essential - Rated
My result for this unit was 88/90 and I based my revision around this book. I recommend using it in conjunction with a more detailed textbook, Longmans AS biology perhaps. This book and the others in the series are a must for this course though - buy it, you'll do well!

This book is essential! - Rated
This book is amazing. I did the AQA syllabus for my Biology A Level, and I used this book and this book alone to revise for my exam (no notes, no big textbook, nothing else) and I got 94% for the module.

The only trick to this book is that every sentence is something you need to know and memorise - whereas in the main book, there is lots of unnecessary background information that you can ignore or forget. I found this particularly useful - you don't waste time revising things that you're not sure you need to know or not from the main book. This doesn't mean that the revision book is hard to understand, either; everything is explained very clearly and in the unlikely event you do get stuck, you can always consult the main course textbook. If you memorise all the material in this book you are guaranteed a (very high) A grade - it misses nothing out.

I'd also strongly recommend getting the revision books for the other modules, like I said, I only used the revision books to revise (with the exception of the last optional module that didn't have a revision book) and I got high As in all modules. Originally I didn't feel they were that important, so did the first module just from the main book - I got a C first time around, then for my resit bought the revision book and got the A. For the sake of five pounds it's really, really worth getting these books, I can't stress how good they are.