Cambridge International AS and A Level Biology Coursebook with CD-ROM

Book Preface

This fourth edition of Cambridge International AS and A Level Biology provides everything that you need to do well in your Cambridge International Examinations AS and A level Biology (9700) courses. It provides full coverage of the syllabus for examinations from 2016 onwards.

The chapters are arranged in the same sequence as the material in your syllabus. Chapters 1 to P1 cover the AS material, and Chapters 12 to P2 cover the extra material you need for the full A level examinations. The various features that you will find in these chapters are explained on the next two pages.

In your examinations, you will be asked many questions that test deep understanding of the facts and concepts that you will learn during your course. It’s therefore not enough just to learn words and diagrams that you can repeat in the examination; you need to ensure that you really understand each concept fully. Trying to answer the questions that you will find within each chapter, and at the end, should help you to do this. There are answers to all of these questions on the CD-ROM that comes with this book.

Although you will study your biology as a series of different topics, it’s very important to appreciate that all of these topics link up with each other. Some of the questions in your examination will test your ability to make links between different areas of the syllabus. For example, in the AS examination you might be asked a question that involves bringing together knowledge about protein synthesis, infectious disease and transport in mammals. In particular, you will find that certain key concepts come up again and again. These include:

â– â–  cells as units of life
â– â–  biochemical processes
â– â–  DNA, the molecule of heredity
â– â–  natural selection
â– â–  organisms in their environment
â– â–  observation and experiment

As you work through your course, make sure that you keep on thinking about the work that you did earlier, and how it relates to the current topic that you are studying. On the CD-ROM, you will also find some suggestions for other sources of particularly interesting or useful information about the material covered in each chapter. Do try to track down and read some of these.

Practical skills are an important part of your biology course. You will develop these skills as you do experiments and other practical work related to the topic you are studying. Chapters P1 (for AS) and P2 (for A level) explain what these skills are, and what you need to be able to do to succeed in the examination papers that test these skills.