Feralis Biology Notes?

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fariaf92

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Hey guys!

I've been having a really hard time trying to figure out how to study for the biology portion of the exam. I've been reviewing from the Kaplan Biology Review Notes and taking quick notes and then using TBR passages, but Kaplan just has too much fluff and I feel like I'm wasting time going through it. I've been using the 2014 Biology section from Chad's Videos, but I feel like it's extremely hard to learn from videos for biology since a lot of it is memorization.
My friend who is taking the DAT gave me the Feralis Biology Notes for the DAT and a lot of the material is the same as what I reviewed in Kaplan (without the fluff). Have any of you guys heard of it? Should I just use that and do TBR passages? Please let me know and suggestions would help as well!

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Fariaf92,

I dont know how much this will help you on the MCAT or if it is a good source ( I have not yet taken the test). However, I can tell you that I too am using feralis' notes to study with. I am combining it with Exam Krackers. My strategy has been as follows: I will read through the chapter once on day 1 then on day 2 I read through the chapter again, this time while making flash cards. As I make the flash cards (Anki) I have the feralis notes open and usually just end up copy pasting his notes into my flashcards that match with the text- If I see he has additional terms that are not in the book... I add them to the flash cards too. Not only are they fair game on the test, but they help piece together the big picture for clarity. I'm sure TBR and Kaplan are both together are necessary (Repetition is very important) ..but when you're done reading make sure you have at least looked at the terms in Ferali's notes.. it will help more than hurt. But remember to know what is being tested on the DAT vs the MCAT. A lot of his notes are on material us MCATers will not see.

Best of Luck,
Stephenie
 
Fariaf92,

I dont know how much this will help you on the MCAT or if it is a good source ( I have not yet taken the test). However, I can tell you that I too am using feralis' notes to study with. I am combining it with Exam Krackers. My strategy has been as follows: I will read through the chapter once on day 1 then on day 2 I read through the chapter again, this time while making flash cards. As I make the flash cards (Anki) I have the feralis notes open and usually just end up copy pasting his notes into my flashcards that match with the text- If I see he has additional terms that are not in the book... I add them to the flash cards too. Not only are they fair game on the test, but they help piece together the big picture for clarity. I'm sure TBR and Kaplan are both together are necessary (Repetition is very important) ..but when you're done reading make sure you have at least looked at the terms in Ferali's notes.. it will help more than hurt. But remember to know what is being tested on the DAT vs the MCAT. A lot of his notes are on material us MCATers will not see.

Best of Luck,
Stephenie

Thanks, sp947, that helps a lot.

I think I'll still continue using my content book and just use the Feralis Notes as an additional resource.
 
You have to be careful if you're using DAT prep material as there's a decent amount of material that's not tested on the MCAT. Studying that information would be incredibly wasteful of your time and counter-productive. I hope if you are using that, I'd highly recommend using the AAMC as an outline.

As far as learning the material goes, you'd be surprised how well you can answer most questions just by having a decent conceptual understanding of the material. Of course, there's certain things everyone should know and know well, but at this point, you should easily distinguish essential from non-essential. Knowing the components of the ear won't help much as knowing the components of a cell and how an individual cell functions. Keep it straightforward and then look at the big picture.
 
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Hey, I wrote the notes - I included a lot of information from multiple sources (Cliff's, Kaplan, Barron's, ExamKrackers, with reference to Wikipedia and Campbell's Bio textbook when necessary), but do keep in mind (as mentioned above) that it covers extraneous information in some areas (the plant and taxonomy chapters can be completely skipped, for example).
 
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