Knowing it and being able to answer the question are different
Biology looks like the memorising subject, so that's how students revise it: read, highlight, repeat. Then they sit the paper and drop marks on content they genuinely knew.
The reason is almost always command words. Describe and explain are not synonyms. Suggest means the answer isn't in the specification and you're expected to reason from what you know. Compare requires both things in the same sentence. A student who writes everything they know about a topic, in any order, will be marked down against a student who knows half as much and answers the actual question.
The maths in biology surprises everyone
A meaningful share of the marks on a GCSE biology paper are mathematical: percentages, ratios, magnification, surface area to volume, rates from a graph, standard form, means and error bars. Students who chose biology partly to avoid maths are ambushed by this, and they lose marks that have nothing to do with biology at all.
Because I teach maths and physics as well, this is straightforward ground to fix, and it's usually the fastest grade improvement available in the subject.
What we cover
Cell biology, transport in cells, organisation and the digestive system, infection and response, bioenergetics (photosynthesis and respiration), homeostasis and response, inheritance, variation and evolution, ecology — plus the required practicals and the mathematical skills that run through the papers.
All UK exam boards: AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC/Eduqas and Cambridge International. Combined Science and Triple both covered.
How I teach it
Less re-reading, more retrieval and more answering under exam conditions with immediate feedback on how the answer was written, not just whether it was right. Diagrams drawn rather than looked at. Command words practised explicitly until they stop being invisible.
It is a less comfortable way to revise than highlighting, and it works considerably better.
Common questions
Do you teach A-Level biology?
No. I trained as a physics teacher and A-Level biology deserves a biology specialist. I teach all four sciences at GCSE, where the depth is within my range, and at A-Level I stick to physics and maths.
My child revises for hours but the grades don't move.
This is the classic biology pattern, and it's usually a technique problem rather than an effort problem. Hours of reading and highlighting feel productive and change very little. Retrieval practice and answering real questions with feedback feel worse and work far better. It's often a quick win.
Is biology the easiest science?
It's the one with the lowest barrier to entry and, at GCSE, the largest volume of content. Whether that makes it easier depends entirely on the student. What's certainly true is that it's the science where good technique makes the biggest difference to the grade.