OxfordAQA International GCSE Biology Tutors Online

OxfordAQA International GCSE Biology is specification 9201. This page works from the current specification, version 5.2, which covers exams from May/June 2018 onwards.

The qualification is linear, and there are two question papers. Both must be taken in the same examination series.

Paper 1 is a written exam of 1 hour 30 minutes carrying 90 marks. Paper 2 is a written exam of 1 hour 30 minutes carrying 90 marks. The assessments are equally weighted, so each paper is half the qualification and the total is 180 marks.

Both papers use structured and open questions. On both papers, content from any part of the specification may be assessed.

That last sentence is the most important fact on this page. There is no topic split between the papers. Paper 1 is not the first half of the course and Paper 2 is not the second half. Either paper can ask about any topic.

So what does differ? The skills. OxfordAQA publishes the weighting of each assessment objective for each paper separately, and the two columns do not match.

There are four assessment objectives, and the fourth one is the unusual one. AO1 is knowledge and understanding of scientific principles. AO2 is application of knowledge and understanding of scientific principles and concepts in both familiar and novel contexts. AO3 is the ability to describe, analyse, interpret and evaluate scientific information presented in different forms.

AO4 is the ability to select, describe and evaluate scientific procedures. Many specifications fold that into their data objective. OxfordAQA keeps it separate and gives it its own weight.

On Paper 1 the weighting is AO1 at 20 per cent, AO2 at 20 per cent, AO3 at 7 per cent and AO4 at 3 per cent.

On Paper 2 the weighting is AO1 at 10 per cent, AO2 at 20 per cent, AO3 at 13 per cent and AO4 at 7 per cent.

The overall weightings are AO1 at 30 per cent, AO2 at 40 per cent, AO3 at 20 per cent and AO4 at 10 per cent.

Reading those two columns side by side tells a family exactly what separates the papers. Paper 1 asks twice as much recall as Paper 2. Paper 2 asks nearly twice as much data interpretation, and more than twice as much about procedures.

Paper 1 is the knowledge paper. Paper 2 is the data and method paper. A student who is strong on facts and weak on graphs will do better in the first sitting of Paper 1 than Paper 2, and can be taught the difference.

The subject content runs across six sections. The first is Organisation, covering cell structure, principles of organisation, animal tissues organs and systems, plant tissues organs and systems, and transport in cells.

The second is Bioenergetics, covering photosynthesis, exchange and transport in plants, circulation, digestion, breathing and respiration.

The third is Ecology, covering energy transferred in ecosystems, adaptations interdependence and competition, decay and the carbon cycle, and humans and their effects on the environment.

The fourth is Organisms' interaction with the environment, covering the human nervous system, homeostasis, control of water and ion content of the body, temperature control, control of blood glucose, behaviour, and infection and response.

The fifth is Inheritance, covering reproduction, cell division, genetic variation, genetic disorders and genetic manipulation.

The sixth is Variation and evolution, covering continuous and discontinuous variation, and natural selection.

That is twenty-nine named topics across the six sections, which is what an A Level or a good grade in this qualification is built out of. A student can name every one of them by the end of the course.

The specification also prints five required practicals, and it names them. The first is an investigation into the effect of different concentrations of solutions separated by a semi permeable membrane, under transport in cells.

The second is an investigation into how variables affect the rate of photosynthesis. The third is an investigation into how different temperatures and pH affect the rate of digestion, under the enzymes work.

The fourth is an investigation into the effects of exercise on the human body, under respiration. The fifth is an investigation into the effect of disinfectants and antibiotics on uncontaminated cultures of microorganisms, under infection and response.

None of the five is assessed by a separate practical exam. They are the vehicle for the AO4 skills, and the questions that test those skills sit inside the two written papers.

The specification prints its own grid showing which scientific processes each practical develops. Risk assessment, collecting data, analysing data, making conclusions and evaluation are developed by all five.

Designing a practical procedure and controlling variables are not. The grid shows those two rows ticked for some of the practicals and not others, so a student cannot assume every practical teaches experiment design.

There is a co-teaching fact that matters to a school. Most of the subject content is common with and co-teachable with OxfordAQA International GCSE Combined Science 9204. Content that is only applicable to biology is marked with a B, either next to the topic heading where it applies to the whole topic, or immediately before each paragraph or bullet point.

Three whole topics are marked B, which means they are Biology only and not part of the Combined Science route: exchange and transport in plants, humans and their effects on the environment, and control of water and ion content of the body.

Many individual statements inside otherwise shared topics carry the B mark too. So the Biology course is mostly the Combined Science course plus a layer of additional detail on top.

The grading scale is the nine point one. The qualification is graded 1 to 9, with 9 the best grade. A student who does not reach the minimum standard for grade 1 is recorded as U for unclassified and does not receive a certificate.

Exams are available in May/June and in November.

Resits are whole qualification only. The specification states that this is a traditional linear specification and that individual components cannot be re-sat.

There are no previous learning requirements. Any requirement for entry to a course based on this specification is at the discretion of the school.

The specification also warns about one entry restriction. It overlaps with AQA UK GCSE Biology 8461, and it overlaps with OxfordAQA International GCSE Combined Science 9204. Entry for Biology 9201 and Combined Science 9204 in the same series is not permitted.

The specification also contains a mathematical requirements appendix, a glossary of subject specific terminology, and a statement of the experimental and investigative skills that teaching should develop.

Working as a scientist is described in the specification as three dimensions: the subject content, the practices of science, and how science as a discipline develops. That third dimension is easy to skip when a student is racing through content, and it is where the procedure questions come from.