Essential AS Biology for OCR.

View other editions of Essential AS Biology for OCR..
View books by Glenn Toole, Sue Toole.

The Best Textbook EVER!!! - Rated
seriously it's the best textbook for biology AS!!!! im curretnly an AS student and all my teachers recommended swapping the Bioloy 1 Book for this one!!!!! it's concise yet detailed and has info that the Biology 1 book doesnt have...no joke that it's all you need to pass!!!!!!!! the essentials Chemistry AS book isn't as great though but the Revise AS Chemistry for OCR A revision guide is good enough to make up for it!!!!!!!!1

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Superb resource, during the course or the night before... - Rated
I used Biology 1 as my main book for the course, but found some areas of it (especially the immune system) very confusing, so soon before the exam I purchased this as an alternative. I'm so glad I did. It clarified everything, and was an amazing revision resource. I could reference any work to it and it would clear up the things I had missing, and was much better at explaining things than Biology 1. The diagrams, especially, are much superior. One of the areas that I hadn't understood before I read the book was a major question on the exam. I'd recommend this to every AS student.

too detailed - Rated
Put in simple words, if you learn the whole book your guaranteed an A. But theres alot of text you dont need to learn, theres just some facts and detial given around what you need to know.

An interesting OCR AS BIOLOGY TEXT - Rated
I like this outstanding A level Biology textbook because the information is provided in an eye appealing way, colourful and systematic.The pictures and graphics are great.I think students will like the way the information is presented, a never dull book to read.

There is a lso an "extension box" using relevant example to engage students' interest in the topic discussed.

Only drawback is the past year examination questions have no attached answers for students to refer for revision.The summary test question is not very useful, it is like filling in the blank for missing words in the topic.Maybe some higher level thinking questions related to the topic can be added, with answers provided to check on understanding.

I like the chapter on amino acids and protein. It gives good details on fibrous and globular proteins, which many textbooks are lacking.This area is important in the Cambridge syllabus.
I wonder why the author did not list down the twenty amino acids in this chapter so that the students can appreciate how the structure of the R group affect the shape of protein due to it's hydrophilic or hydrophobic nature.

The author uses alot of tables to group information for easy understanding eg table showing summary of osmosis in a plant cell (pg 63).The last part on Study and examination skills for AS Biology (Chp 17)is useful to students. Overall, this is an excellent A level Biology textbook!