A-Level Biology

You will under­take 12 core prac­ti­cal units includ­ing; using micro­scopes to see cell divi­sion, dis­sec­tion of ani­mals or plant sys­tems, asep­tic tech­nique to study micro­bial growth, inves­ti­gat­ing activ­i­ty in cells and inves­ti­gat­ing ani­mal behav­iour. You will study in a vari­ety of ways includ­ing work­sheets, quizzes, research, prac­tice exam ques­tions, prac­ti­cals, skills assess­ments, lab books, extend­ed read­ing, group work and inde­pen­dent study.

The stan­dard require­ment for A Lev­els at Stam­ford Col­lege is 5 GCSEs at Grade 5/C or above as a min­i­mum for human­i­ties sub­jects and 6/B in maths for all sci­ence subjects.

Each A Lev­el sub­ject has its own addi­tion­al entry require­ments, please see below:

Min­i­mum grade 6/B or above in maths and 66 BB in Com­bined Sci­ence or Grade 6/B in maths and 6/B in Biol­o­gy plus 6/B in Chem­istry or Physics.

We will review each appli­ca­tion on a case-by-case basis to ensure you get a place on the course most suit­able for you. We offer an online inter­view which will explain the A Lev­el pro­gramme and also allow for an infor­mal chat with the tutor for each sub­ject before an offer to study with us can be made to you.

Once enrolled one of the ways we make sure the course is right for you is through a very effec­tive ​‘6 weeks to suc­cess’ pro­gramme that oper­ates from the first day you start your course. This includes sup­port such as (but not lim­it­ed to):

• Allow­ing you to change sub­ject and course if you change your mind or find the course is not right for you in the first 6 weeks ‑sub­ject to availability 
• Mov­ing you between A‑Levels and a Lev­el 3 Diplo­ma if you are find­ing your cur­rent lev­el too hard — sub­ject to availability 
• One-to-one reviews with your aca­d­e­m­ic tutor to ensure you are pro­gress­ing and achiev­ing well

Our course enquiries and admis­sions team can be con­tact­ed at enquiries@​stamford.​ac.​uk should you have any fur­ther questions.

Dur­ing the two years of study, you will be reg­u­lar­ly assessed under test con­di­tions to prac­tise being able to under­stand and respond to the ques­tions asked in the cor­rect time allo­ca­tion so that you are ful­ly pre­pared for the final exams. There is an assess­ment cal­en­dar for A lev­els which includes timed assess­ment every 4 to 5 weeks. Feed­back gained from these assess­ments will help you to devel­op your skills, tar­get your revi­sion and where nec­es­sary enable us to pro­vide addi­tion­al sup­port How you will be assessed: In addi­tion, you will be required to under­take a min­i­mum of 12 assessed prac­ti­cals and write up all sup­port­ing infor­ma­tion in a lab book.

It is rec­om­mend­ed that you check the entry require­ments for the degree cours­es / career paths you are con­sid­er­ing. It is com­mon to need chem­istry and / or maths along­side biol­o­gy. You will be expect­ed to attend maths for biol­o­gists ses­sions once per week if you do not take maths. A lab coat and safe­ty glass­es are required for this course, these can be pur­chased from the col­lege and will cost approx­i­mate­ly £15 or you can use the ones we have. You will also need a sci­en­tif­ic cal­cu­la­tor. Please see our stu­dent sup­port web­page https://​www​.stam​ford​.ac​.uk/​c​o​l​l​e​g​e​-​l​i​f​e​/​s​u​p​p​o​r​t​-​s​e​r​vices to see if we can help you with the pur­chase of these nec­es­sary pieces of equipment.

You will study 3 A Lev­el sub­jects, plus tuto­r­i­al and career devel­op­ment ses­sions. Each sub­ject has 6 hours per week con­tact time, with approx­i­mate­ly 4 hours of inde­pen­dent study. 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly we can­not accept stu­dents who only want to study a sin­gle A Lev­el sub­ject due to fund­ing limitations.

Exam­ple job roles:

• Doc­tor
• Clin­i­cal Mol­e­c­u­lar Geneticist
• Nature Con­ser­va­tion Officer
• Phar­ma­col­o­gist
• Phys­io­ther­a­pist
• Nurse
• Research Sci­en­tist
• Vet
• Sec­ondary School Teacher
• Marine Biol­o­gist
• Den­tist

Study­ing fur­ther degrees in:

• Biol­o­gy
• Psy­chol­o­gy
• Sport and Exer­cise Science
• Med­i­cine
• Anato­my
• Phys­i­ol­o­gy
• Pathol­o­gy
• Bio­chem­istry
• Bio­med­i­cine
• Phar­ma­col­o­gy
• Tox­i­col­o­gy
• Phar­ma­cy
• Chem­istry

You will study the fol­low­ing units:

• Bio­log­i­cal molecules
• Cells
• How organ­isms exchange sub­stances with their environment
• Genet­ic infor­ma­tion, vari­a­tion and rela­tion­ships between organisms
• Ener­gy trans­fers in and between organisms
• How organ­isms respond to changes in their inter­nal and exter­nal environments
• Genet­ics, pop­u­la­tions, evo­lu­tion and ecosystems
• The con­trol of gene expression