Biology

Eduqas A-Level Biology is taken in England and covers basic biochemistry and cell organisation, biodiversity and physiology of body systems, energy and homeostasis, and variation, inheritance and options, with a final unified paper that assesses practical and mathematical skills across the whole course.

The optional topic — chosen by the school from immunology and disease, human musculoskeletal anatomy, or neurobiology and behaviour — gives Eduqas biology a different flavour from board to school. The unified paper is where mathematical and practical skills are concentrated, and students who treat statistics as peripheral to biology tend to lose a disproportionate number of marks there.