Update status for 16/06/2025: Topics A1, A2, and A3 (excluding A2.2 Cell Structure and A2.3 Viruses) are uploaded! A2.2 will be posting during this week.

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Bio Notes

Bio Notes PDF

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Note: Diagrams used in the PDFs, unless specified, are created by me.

Note: Definitions in the glossary are taken from Kognity.

The characters are from Sanrio! My favs are Tuxedo Sam and Kumalino🎀

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Study resources I used (in order of how I studied)

• For learning
  • Cheryl Hickman from Sirius Revision: Great place to start! The bio girlie (my bio cohort called her that lol) really does well in simplifying the syllabus into 7-25 minute videos that really hit each learning target. I watched the videos in x3 speed whenever I did last-minute cramming sessions lol. I do have to say that she uses simple words to explain, so for more nuanced answers for those communication marks on paper 2B, you might want to refer to other resources. But anyways, she’s my biology Jesus.
  • Oxford textbook: My school used the Oxford textbook and I can’t really say much about textbooks because I only really used this one :/ Overall, I think it thoroughly addresses all the learning targets, although I find that some concepts that could be explained in one or two sentences are unnecessarily complicated.
  • BioNinja: Probably the most famous IB Biology resource out there. The creator puts a lot of extra material on there that isn’t stated in the Subject Guide, but one of the bio teachers at my school had a theory that the IB actually takes reference from their website for questions. Definitely use it if you’re aiming for a 7. A bit hard to navigate because they use their own system of organizing content, but you can access their planner here.
  • Kognity: My school had Kognity - I used it thoroughly for half of the course, until I kinda didn’t? I liked the diagrams and the glossary feature, but as someone who seeks maximum content with minimum words, it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. However, I heard it’s ridiculously expensive, so it’s not a prerequisite to earning a high mark.
• For review
  • Oxford Study Guide: Spectacular book. My biology Bible, Quran, Tripitaka. Like its textbook counterpart, it’s a bit lengthier than I think is necessary, but still amazing.
  • IB Subject Guide: Use this. Use this. Use this. The IB tells you what you need to know. SO USE IT.
  • My notes: Shameless self-promo. I used these exact same set of notes for my M25 exams. Final scores aren’t out yet, but I’ve gotten a 7 predicted, so I would say they are pretty solid. They have the bare minimum content that you have to know before an exam, so they’re meant for late-minute study sessions. Do NOT step into a test confidently after only having read my notes.
• For practice
  • Past papers: Although some questions aren’t relevant anymore, past papers are great for understanding the language that IB uses when phrasing questions! I believe I went through about 5? 6? for my actual exams, which honestly isn’t much, but still helped me a lot on my actual exams.
  • **Pestle** and ipassed: Both good for resources for reviewing content - Pestle is like a past paper question bank, so as aforementioned, it’s good for identifying IB language, especially command terms and markschemes. But ipassed is based on the 2025 curriculum, so it’s good for targeted review specific to our curriculum. Only downside of ipassed is that it only has mutiple choice questions, but it does encourage active recalling by blurring the options at first before you answer.
  • **Revision Dojo:** I get it, people don’t like the Revision Dojo AI grader, AI detector, AI generated notes, and all the other features. Fine. I didn’t use the notes myself, either. But the questions are good - genuinely good. I admit, some are kinda weird but the vast majority of the questions in the question banks are great, and it’s also fun to see the reactions of others on particularly bad questions (the number of 💀, 🗿, and 👎 on ridiculous ones are so funny). </aside>

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Study resources I did not use but heard good reviews/would have used if I were taking IB biology right now

• For learning
  • TeachMe: They have super in-depth videos with a subscription - I didn’t know about them until the whole drama of the monetization of the videos, but I assume that they have great content based on the number of upset comments? I mostly used Sirius Revision for big idea learning and then read the textbook for the nitty-bitty parts. They also have PDF notes but it was so different from my method of organization - I personally had some difficulties reading the notes, so I ditched them.
  • the7student: He’s a former IB student and current IB biology tutor, I believe. Gives great tips for when you take the actual exams too, only that… that he posted them after I took my exams. Still, his content so far is great and I think he’ll continue to post great bio videos + tips for exams.
  • IB Biosone: My bio teacher had her PDFs uploaded on his page as study resources, so I think they’re pretty legit. From what I saw, it really delves deep into the curriculum, and if you go through all the excercises, I honestly think you’ll be pretty much ready. I didn’t have time to do them, though🥀
  • Save My Exams: I loathe subscription services. Still, the 10 notes per months isn’t too bad, and I heard that you can bypass the limit by using different browers? (ex. Switching to Edge from Chrome) I didn’t use the notes, but I know of some other great bio students who really enjoyed using the notes. I do think that SME has simple and clear diagrams.
  • Other textbooks: Hodder and Pearson are also other options for textbooks, though I can’t say much about them. Refer to what the creator of IB Biosone has to say about the differences between the three publishers (Oxford, Hodder, and Pearson).
• For review
  • bio letters: Great for making sure you have the learning targets down. I really like how they had the guidance for each content statement taken from the IB Subject Guide on top of the notes, though they do make the PDFs longer (I like having information VERY condensed). They also have practice papers (I’m not sure if they’re still up) that absolutely humble you. Not for the light-hearted.
  • Noteworthy Science: Has brilliant diagrams! It’s a bit difficult to read in my opinion, but other than that, it seems fantastic! It’s also really fun to look at his drawings on his website, haha.
• For practice
  • Revision Village/Revision Town: I heard a lot of my classmates talk about these two particular sites for studying, but I honestly never even opened them because I heard they were subscription based? I might be wrong though, but I just Revision Dojo (despite mixed reviews).
  • Think IB: Honestly, I had an account to Think IB for chemistry HL, but I really didn’t use it… my chemistry teacher loved it though, so Think IB must be doing something good. He absolutely abused the practice questions thing. I’m not sure about biology, but I assume it’s similar. </aside>

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Bio study tips!

• Even if tests aren't cumulative, study as if they are: Give yourself the emotional stress, so that by the time you take you actual exam, you're ready

• Bio notes aren't meant to be a second textbook, don't spend so much time making them: Hot take - if I were a 2016 curriculum student, I wouldn't even bother with notes. I would've just taken them off the internet:)

  • I actually love the Oxford Study Guide: If you have the book, great! Absolutely abuse it - write on it, stick post-its on it, color in diagrams, replace diagrams with better ones. If you don't, print the PDF out.

• Review at least 1-2 hours per week, it doesn’t matter when: I've seen a lot of people say review immediately after class, but I managed to keep up a 7 throughout the IB program by reviewing mostly on weekends!

  • As a side note, I didn't review from past papers, but rather through IB question banks + Revision Dojo question banks (because it's free and actually quite decent despite reviews) + Pestle + ipassed.

• Create a bio wall - print out bio diagrams (from BioNinja and/or Kognity if you have it) and stick them on your wall. Look at them once when you get up, look at them twice when you get back home, and look at them thrice before you go to bed. Extra brownie points if you use post-it flags to indicate whether you need to review the diagram or not.

  

  🎀my biology wall🎀

  • Set the printing settings as 4 pages per sheet so that you get the nice, flashcard-size diagrams. Later, you can take the ones that are flagged as need to review down from the wall and use them as flashcards.

• Open every folder in **ibdocs** - you might find some hidden gems, not only for biology cough teachme biology cough textbook pdfs cough save my exams notes cough questionbanks cough free revision town cough predicted papers-

• READ THE IB SUBJECT GUIDE WHILE REVIEWING!!!! - can't emphasize this enough. The IB gives you a literal guide to the bare minimum of what you need to know. use it.

  • Make a checklist (learned, learning, to learn) with each learning outcome. The checklist will be really useful for exams for focused review. </aside>

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About me

Hi! I’m a freshly graduated M25 student with a predicted 44, 777 for my HLs (Biology, Chemistry, Math AA) and 776 for my SLs (Economics, Spanish Ab Initio, English Literature). I’m currently in the process of applying to universities (I plan on studying in a country where uni starts in March) and since I have such a long break until actual university starts, I’m doing something productive that will hopefully help fellow IB students! You can contact me via Reddit (u/jjuu_) or email ([email protected]) if you have any questions or suggestions. Good luck!🍀

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