I recently wrote a post about the IGCSE Biology Student Book which we are planning on using and in the post I briefly mentioned this workbook as something I was wanting to get for extra practice. Well, we now have the workbook so I thought I would give everyone a bit more detail about it.

Okay so why are we using a workbook? Doesn’t the Student Book have questions in it? Yes it does. It actually has quite a few questions and it looks like the questions are a nice variety. But I would rather be in the position of having extra questions than wishing we had more, so yes for us a workbook is a must have. And a workbook that is linked to the student book, has exam styled questions and answers is just the type of workbook that I like using. If we feel like we have covered a topic really thoroughly and my daughter is very confident then we may just work through the questions verbally, discussing them together. But when we want extra practice, when she may have gotten one or two things wrong when she worked through her student book then I want those extra questions as a way of making sure we now “get it”.

This workbook is written as an extra for the student book. So the topics covered really are in the same order. There is no trying to match this question to that chapter. Topic one in the workbook matches topic one in the student book. This just makes it straight forward and easy to use with the student book.

The questions included are a mix of different types of questions. There are multiple choice, label the diagram, one mark questions up to extended writing questions, there are graphs and table questions (maths type questions), and they include a lot of practical activities. There really is a good mix of questions.

I know my daughter is not that keen on the “maths-type” questions so I immediately focused on those and made sure there were extra examples of graphs and calculations. Which there are. I was also struck by the inclusion of the extended writing questions. I thought these were a great addition as I know a lot of kids struggle with the longer questions so these are always going to be good to practice and then I have to say the Practical activities really impressed me. But really whatever it is you think your kiddo needs practice with I am sure they have included them in this workbook.

I have read a few comments from other people about the lack of answers. There are answers, there are answers for all of the questions. They are on the Hodder Education website and are FREE to download. If you look on the workbook page – International GCSE Biology workbook – on the left hand side there are a few links and one of those links says answers – that is where you go to download the answers for this workbook. (In fact for quite a few of the Hodder Books if you look on the left hand side there are normally links added and if the answers are free to download they will be there).

The photo below shows what the answers look like. The page on the left is a page out of the workbook and then on the right is the corresponding answer page.

So this is the workbook that we are going to use with our student book for International GCSE Biology. As always I will write update posts once we have used them for a little bit but I have to say I am actually feeling quite happy about our choices for Biology.

I shared links for the workbook in the post but in case you missed them here is the workbook on the Hodder site – International GCSE Biology workbook

and here is an Amazon link – Edexcel International GCSE Biology Workbook.

Admin – After really liking the way the Biology Student book looked I asked Hodder if we could get a copy of their workbook so I could take some photos and write a post about it. They kindly sent me this workbook. This is not a paid for post and all photos and opinions expressed are mine.

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