We are in the midst of the A level exams! So firstly may I say good luck to you all, and I hope that you get the grades that you want - or deserve!

I am often asked for "exam tips" and the best tip that I can give is the old one that students are sick to death of hearing, and that is "read the question properly and answer the question that you are being asked, and not the one that you want to answer". It still surprises me how many students don't answer the actual question.

If you are given data and are asked to "describe" then do just that - state exactly what you see happening. If you are asked to "describe and explain" then you must not only state what is happening, but use key biological principles to explain why it is happening too.

If you are asked to "suggest" then you do not have to give the definitive answer, but use your knowledge of biology to give a plausible explanation of why something is happening.

If you are asked to "compare" then you must say something about BOTH factors and not just make a statement about one of them.

If you are asked to put ticks and crosses in boxes, then put both ticks AND crosses. To leave one set of boxes blank because you know that they are not ticks does not indicate to the examiner that you know that they should be crosses.

And to those students that I teach - remember to think of me as Jiminy Cricket sitting on your shoulder asking "do you REALLY want to put that??" before you write lines of complete rubbish simply to fill up the white space.

And finally, if you really do not have a clue what a particular question is about, blank space is a guarantee to get no marks at all but a half intelligent guess might just salvage something. So, good luck and I await the news in August.