Product Description

Building on the success of the second edition, this truly accessible textbook comprehensively covers the 2008 AS and A2 specifications for all the main UK exam boards, as well as the IB Diploma Programme and the Cambridge International A-Level. The book also has a companion website which is free to book users and provides extra resources. Written by authors with many years' experience of teaching, examining and writing, this is an ideal resource for class or independent study. The book includes the following features: / How Science Works feature boxes focus on this key element of the new specifications. / Stretch and Challenge boxes challenge more able students, enabling them to achieve the highest grades. / Science in Context boxes encourage students to relate their learning to the world around them. / Summaries at the end of every chapter help students with revision. / Test Yourself questions throughout the text enable students to monitor their own progress in preparation for their exams. / Remember This boxes highlight the key facts.The website provides the following additional resources: / Practice questions (and answers) allow students to test their understanding of the material just covered. / How Science Works assignments allow students to prepare for the How Science Works element of the new AS and A2 Biology exams.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134837 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Review
Reviews of the First Edition: "The authors have a very good understanding of what many students find difficult and have addressed these issues both in the text and with questions and exercises. !a good active learning text for students." Science Education Newsletter "!a fresh and lively approach to biological science!will stretch the most able, as well as support the average, student." Education Review "The text is easy to read and should prove accessible to the most reluctant readers. The authors have overcome the problem of teaching students who are unfamiliar with the basic concepts." Times Educational Supplement

About the Author
Mike Boyle is Head of Biology at Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College (one of the largest Sixth Form Colleges in the UK with over 2500 students). He is also a former examiner for AQA. Mike has 26 years' experience of teaching A-level and has written 12 successful A-level textbooks for HarperCollins and 4 GCSE textbooks. Kathryn Senior worked as a biomedical research scientist for five years before joining a scientific publishing company working on educational science textbooks. After four years in-house, she embarked on a freelance editing and writing career. In the last 15 years, she has written 10 popular science books for children. As an academic science writer, she also writes regular news articles and features for several journals, including The Lancet Infectious Diseases, The Lancet Oncology and Frontiers, the Journal of the Ecological Society of America and contributes research highlights articles to the various Nature Clinical Practice journals. Kathryn has also worked on writing projects for Macmillan Cancer Relief, the Physiological Society, the Guardian educational publishing division, the European Life Sciences Organisation, the European Commission and the BBC.

Customer Reviews

Easy to digest, pretty pictures, diagrams; not much else.
I bought this book when i chanced upon it at my local Waterstones. It has lots of illustrations, colour photographs, and simple diagrams - but in terms of the detail and depth of information contained in the text it's quite lacking. I would recommend this book to those who struggle with new concepts, or horrible complex areas of the syllabus, such as respiration and photosynthesis; the book explains these areas in a simple straightforward manner, without too much biological jargon or useless information. The page layout is very clear and easy-to-follow, with blocks of text sectioned off under brightly coloured headers. On the other hand, this book just doesn't go into enough scientific detail for my liking. Many of the units and concepts covered lack the fine detail that would be needed to get an A grade. I have even spotted a mistake in the text (of the 2nd, and latest, Edition) - in the unit covering meiosis it says that during Early Prophase I the /centromeres/ move to opposite poles, when it should say that the micro-tubule organising centres (aka centrioles) move to opposite poles. Another annoying thing is that although they've wrongly mentioned the centromeres in their description of meiosis I, they also fail to mention the behaviour or function of the centromeres at all anywhere else in the unit - eg. under 'Metaphase I' they fail to mention that the centromeres do not replicate, for which reason the sister chromatids remain as a single unit and aren’t separated in the proceeding Anaphase. Furthermore, under 'Metaphase II' they don't mention at all that the centromeres divide, thus allowing each sister chromatid to form a daughter chromosome in the each of the gametes made - they simply say that each chromatid migrates to opposite poles, without saying how or why. The most annoying thing however, is that they do not provide answers to the past examination questions that are at the end of each chapter - and the CD-Rom which supposedly has those answers is apparently supplied by neither any of the major book retailers nor Collins themselves! If you want an in-depth A-grade book then i'd recommend 'Advanced Biology' by Oxford University Press - it's more detailed, has better exam questions (to which answers are provided in the back of the book!), and it also costs less!

A level Aceness
This Book is the bible for students taking advanced biology.
It covers everything you need and more. Its brim full of factual content and funky easy to read diagrams and pictures.
Aceness.
its easy to read as it is set for students, theres not to much waffle and jargon you usually find in biological textbooks. As I said a true life saver. The new edition is a lot better than the previous one and the mistakes have been corrected.
I was on a grade D at A-level until i purchased this book and with its aid and a little grit and determination i acheived a grade B. More proof of its effectiveness.
Cheers Mikey B!

A good one
This book is very informative and gives plenty of information in an interesting way. i found this book very helpfull towards my As-level Biology. Though it may not cover subjects in a lot of depth, it gives a basic understanding of the topics covered by the syllobus.