I'm one month into college and I've taken two bio tests so far and I'm doing iffy. My first bio test I got an 86 and my second I took today but I think I got from a 70-80 maybe even a 60. What am I doing wrong? This is how I studied for my first test. I spent three days prior to it studying powerpoints and easy notes questions. For the powerpoints I took notes while studying it to make a study guide. I think it helps me remember. After making the study guide I look over it and then I look over all the practice test questions from Easy Notes. I did the exact same strategy with my current test except I did 4/6 of the chapters on the first day and the last 2 on the second day along with Easy Notes. I'm taking these tests and I'm doing so iffy on them. Any tips on how to do better? I would've studied more for the second test but I have a Bio Lab Exam that week on Wednesday and the test was on Friday so I only had two days to study for it. I know this sounds a bit crazy but Idk I'm doing everything I think I should be doing and I'm putting in the effort and time,but honestly, I'm disappointed with how I'm doing. Idk where I'm going wrong. I aced Chemistry with a 99 on the first test since Chemistry is mostly practicing practice problems but what am I doing wrong for Bio. Should I just memorize the whole textbook and then do easy note questions rather than look over them? The reason I don't do that is because I read the textbook and learn the material before I do practice problems for hw so I don't find the need. Overall, how do I improve in Biology?
First test likely was a review of concepts in highschool, which explains the higher score. So even a brief 3 day preparation was sufficient for it.
Your poor performance in the second test (which should cover newer material) indeed shows that your test preparation is not sufficient.
1) I don't think you should be cramming for exams. Revisiting them in small chunks over the course of weeks would be better than revisiting them in large chunks over the course of couple of days. Long term retention requires long term utilization.
2) Look back on the exams you took and answer the following questions:
a. Are you bad at test taking or did you really understand and remember all the concepts presented in the test? <<< Bad test-taking abilities warrant some practice, and practice exams are available online to help you with that. Fortunately, introductory bio courses tend to be similar across institutions, so the tests shouldn't be too different. Learn some common test-taking strategies through online videos. If your test taking abilities are fine, then obviously that means you need to take more time trying to understand and retain the information.
b. Were all the topics covered in the lecture, or were some of them exclusively in the book? <<< If all the topics were covered in the lecture, forget about the book and start recording lectures. Refer to a book or online sources (youtube video) if certain concepts need further clarification.
c. Looking back on your tests days/weeks after, are they still familiar to you? <<< This is to see how well you've retained the information and assess your weak areas. Maybe you're okay with general concepts, but suck at vocab. Maybe you're good at vocab, but suck at number crunching. This will help you think about what additional things you need to do to improve.
3) Your reliance on Easy Notes needs to stop. Okay, those are pretty good resources and all, but you can really only use them once. Once you remembered the answer to a question, it's no longer good practice. Find some other way to do what people call "active learning".
What I personally do is create a study guide and pretend I have to give a lecture to a class about the topics. So I would be giving a speech to my pet budgie. . . This is the most rudimentary form of active learning. This is the sort of thing we did as kids whenever we blabber to our mom some weird factoid we learned on discovery channel. Having to "teach" a subject forces you to break down concepts into readily digestible forms which are easier to retain not only for the student, but also you the "teacher".
