Selecting a course to study can be tricky especially when you don’t know what you’d be studying, why and what the future will hold for that course. Below is all you should know before you study biology as a course.
Click here For the WAEC subject combination for biology
Define Biology?
Biology is the study of living things which include plants, animals, and microorganisms. It is a natural science with a broad scope that deals with details of life formation (cell) and organization. A person studying Biology is known as a biologist.
Why you should study Biology?
Apart from humans, there are other living and non-living components that help sustain the earth. We are dependent on many of these components and so, require knowledge about them to be able to live better by further improving the ecosystem.
Courses related to biology
Zoology, Botany, Biology Education, etc
Traits that will help you pass the course
- Passion: you should be passionate about nature, and love working with water, chemicals, soil, plants, and animals.
- Listening for details: Biology requires attentiveness. This means that every single detail is important. An example is that you need to know the botanical names of some living organisms, especially the ones you’d be studying. Now, these names have laws that guide them and alternate spellings are considered wrong.
- Drawing: your drawing skills shouldn’t be entirely poor, this doesn’t mean you need to be an artist. You need this skill while studying biology because you will be required to draw certain diagrams. Although printed images are sometimes used, you could be tasked with drawing directly from a microscope.
Topics the course biology is concerned with;
These are areas that the course biology will cover. Some of the topics are important to have a deep knowledge of, while others are briefly included. These topics include;
- Behavior of insects
- Genetic and molecular biology
- Study of plants especially algae
- Biochemistry and biotechnology
- Vertebrate zoology
- Chemistry
- Laboratory science
- Statistics and brief calculations
Employment opportunities for graduates of Biology
You may think that graduates of biology are stuck with teaching in the classroom, but that is not true as you can use the degree for more than that. The fields you can work with your degree include :
- Biology-related research (may require a doctorate).
- Health and social worker
- Biotechnology
- Wholesale and retail services
- Embryology
- Medical lab Science
- Marine Science
- Soil research
- Clinical research
- Conservation office
- Field trial office
- Investment consultancy
- Education
- Technical media and science journalism
- Epidemiology
- Forensic science
- Information analysis
- Agriculture, etc
How much will you earn as a salary?
This depends on where you decide to work and the additional skills you have as an individual.
Important skills to have apart from your degree to help you gain employment.
One comment from a student studying the course
Studying life forms, and their genetic,physical, and physiological makeup is interesting – Dikko Chinedu Oladapo (the guy who writes WAEC every year)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is biology a competitive course?
Biology is averagely competitive. It is not as sort after as medicine but it is equally a very good science course. It should also not be passed off as an easy course because it also requires full attention.
What is the Jamb cut-off mark for Biology?
JAMB cut-off mark may be slightly different from the school you will be attending but it is around 200 for most.
See the list of schools and JAMB course combination for biology here.
Can I still do biology If I didn’t register it in my O’level exam?
You must have studied science in your secondary school to be able to study the course. However, if you didn’t register biology in your O’ level exam, you can use Agriculture as it is sometimes considered an alternative course. Yes, you will be given admission if you registered Agriculture in place of Biology.
How much will I earn as a biologist?
As I said earlier, this depends on where you decide to work and the additional skills you have as an individual.
How many year(s) course is biology?
It is a four-year course that gives you a bachelor of science degree (B.sc) .
I hope that these points help you select your preferred course of study. I’d like to know about the issues you’ve faced so far in the comments.
JustDooYou 
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