How to ACE Year 12 Biology + Mindmapping (99.95 ATAR Tips)

Hi Guys,

Although this video is a few days late, it’s jam-packed with biology tips plus a sneak peek of one of my mindmaps!!

Timestamps:
Intro - 0:00
What’s Hard About Biology - 0:57
How to Understand Biology - 6:35 (with mindmap sneak peek)
Flashcards - 14:20
Kolb’s Experiential Learning - 16:11
Tests/Exams - 17:29

MY THINGS:

Who am I:
I'm Archer, a second-year medical student in Australia making videos about studying, productivity and technology.

If you have any questions or want to have a chat, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll get to it as soon as possible. If you DM me on Instagram I'm more likely to see it sooner!

[helenknowles]

Wow - As an HSC biology teacher for many years now, this was so amazing to watch as it validates pretty much everything that I try to get through to my students. Thankyou so much for making this most crucially logical point that understanding WHY things happen is much more useful and efficient that just memorising WHAT happens, and that knowing how to THINK is more worthwhile than knowing how to regurgitate a pre-planned response. I finally feel like a good teacher!

[annastaciaAU]

I am a few days away from starting year 12 biology.. and this has just boosted my confidence. so thankyou

[lillibryant]

This is super helpful! I've had so many exciting realizations from actually asking questions :)

[dedopest]

5:39

Importance of concepts and how do they relate.
A concept "A" is made of smaller concepts also. And we ask the same questions.(Break a concept into three chunks maximum?

Glycolysis happens in the cytosol. We ask, why is the cytosol important and how does it relate to degrading glucose, or to other cell components such as the mitochondria, or what chemical substance is it made off etc...

Use of mindmaps:
1) main concept in the middle, and we branche out to concepts that we think are important and that relate to the main concept
2)Bold lines for main relationships
3)Lack of words and unique visuals (that most of the time will only make sense to whom created them)


Kolb's cycle: (For every study session)
1-Experience(Study session, questions, mind-map making, test practicing)
2-Reflection(How effective was this? What went wrong and what was beneficial? What can i do next time?)
3-Abstraction(The new modifications that we will exploit next time)
4-Experimentation(Study session with new knowledge)

[mamoako]

11:12 Mind map (13:58 How to create chunks)

[lukegregg]

What leaves me concerned is about mind-maps, when you stick to the "one word (or one-word associations)", and as the map ages, it becomes impossible to remember exactly what you were thinking. I am familiar with process mapping but what I do not know is the context in which mind mapping is useful: in the sense that, what comes after it? One it's done, how is it used for subsequent steps? Thanks for your time!

[hayhaypanda]

Your videos have amazing quality like that of Ali Abdaal. I'm starting exam revision, and this video has helped me so much. Keep up the amazing videos, Archer.

[koya]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have trials coming up soon and so this is really helpful for my prep

[parkeranderson]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Archer’s channel was run by plants in a few days...

[abdullah-hicf]

Been waiting for this video for ages!! thank you

[moguzkarakasli]

well you had mentioned about mind mapping on the other videos as well. but i couldn't find it

[vladimirwilliams]

What about creating a basic mindmap for a lesson like viruses or prokaryotes and only writing down the first layer of things which is the general sketch and relationship between concepts like for example "Viruses are not cellular structures and are simpler than cells", then next to that mark a little star symbol and make a flashcard that says" viruses don't have membranes or nuclei, they consist of a single type of nucleic acid surrounded by capsomers that form the capsid shell and sometimes more complex viruses may have an additional shell made up of proteins lipids and carbohydrates" so when you look at the mindmap you're supposed to think about the fact that viruses are simpler than cells plus the details about virus structure and if you don't you can always look back at your flashcard.

[ViKiinGViiRuS]

Nice video. What's the best app on iPad to create mind maps with the apple pencil?

[tysken]

What do you do after you have Done your mind-Map. How often do you revise it?

[bollyhood]

nice video, it would be cool to see one of these videos on the English subjects

[mariakarenquijano]

If you I don’t draw so well like in your mind map is it an option from getting a picture from Google and just doing mind maps around others pics? I study well when I see pictures and I try to visualize it

[Jules.Youtube]

I wonder, how do you go between your mindmaps and your Notion cards (where you have all of the structure of the course into toggle lists) ? Do you put the same information twice, or is it separate ?

[kawaiilexie]

So far ive gotten the hang of learning about the bigger picture of topics, but whenever it comes to the little details i lose interest and feel overwhelmed. Most of the time my bigger picture understanding isn't enough to pass the test. How can I overcome this problem regarding little details in learning topics?

[Lautaro_Guindulain]

Looking forward to learn about mind maps

[sage]

Thank you! This was an incredibly helpful video, what mindmapping digital app do you use? I'm currently using Notes on the iPad, but it has very limited space, so it makes it difficult to do an actual mindmap.