How to Approach Biology?

[ZeroTouchMeNot]

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Hey all!

So for my Bio midterm, I only got an 82 (thankfully it's only 10% of our grade), whereas the average was a 76. I'm pretty disappointed with my score.

That being said, how do you guys study for Bio? Since I go to a well known STEM school, our class is kinda tough. Anki won't really work for our class as well since our midterm did not really rely on memorization a lot.

Thanks!

 

[PreachyMusican39]

SI sessions if you have them. Really making sure you visualize what's going on in the cell or organ and teach it to a friend if you can. Draw out lots of pictures and diagrams with arrows that show relationships. My experience with biology was that it is a lot more important to know how and why things happen and the effect that has on other systems a lot more than just memorizing what is happening.

 

[deleted1041221]

I second the above. Conducting and studying science well is all about understanding relationships. Especially since your class is not heavily focused on memorization, it's probably more concerned with having you understand contexts and interdependencies. Try to understand why processes work the way they do and how everything works together.

 

[lull]

get anki

 

[ZeroTouchMeNot]

SI sessions if you have them. Really making sure you visualize what's going on in the cell or organ and teach it to a friend if you can. Draw out lots of pictures and diagrams with arrows that show relationships. My experience with biology was that it is a lot more important to know how and why things happen and the effect that has on other systems a lot more than just memorizing what is happening.

Thanks! Do you take notes during classes? I have never been a notes kind of guy, especially since I'm more inclined towards Physics and Math.

 

[ZeroTouchMeNot]

get anki

What should I use Anki for? Is it for the diagrams?

 

[ZeroTouchMeNot]

I second the above. Conducting and studying science well is all about understanding relationships. Especially since your class is not heavily focused on memorization, it's probably more concerned with having you understand contexts and interdependencies. Try to understand why processes work the way they do and how everything works together.

Thanks! As an aside, do you know of any books that offer practice problems? Currently, we're using Molecular Cell Biology by Lodish, et. al and it doesn't have any practice problems.

 

[PreachyMusican39]

You can also use khan academy to supplement some info. Absolutely you need to take notes. That may be part of your problem. My notebook is filled with what the professor teaches and what I think is important and he'll test me on based on his tone or what he is emphasizing. You could study all day long for biology but if you study the wrong material it isn't worth anything.

 

[lull]

What should I use Anki for? Is it for the diagrams?

I’ve used anki for practice problems, open ended questions, diagrams. I used to make decks using entirely cloze deletion, which didnt help in upper division, so I switched to doing more open ended flashcards “Describe the process of xxx” “Give an example of xxxx”, “Draw the steps of xxxx” (and then paste the figure as the answer). If your class gives practice tests or you have access to your previous test, look at how your instructor frames test questions and take concepts that you’re learning in class currently and structure your decks in the format you would often be tested in.

 

[Wayfinder]

Hi! AP Bio Teacher here. Sorry, this is long but I hope it helps!
Where I see my kiddos mess up the most is first lack of basic memorization. There is a whole list of biological jargon you need to be familiar with, ideally to the point where you can pull them out of your brain without some form of prompting. Anki can be good for this.

Second is the application of terms which is what you are probably seeing in your exams. This is where you have to be able to go beyond studying flashcards. I recommend taking notes in class, or if you are an auditory learner recording your lectures and relistening to them on 2x speed. If your class has powerpoints the comment section is an excellent place to take notes because when reviewing the powerpoints you can easily find where you put your notes previously. Someone said this earlier but make sure you star everything that your professor says is important.
SI or if the class has a TA is a great opportunity to get a second person's explanation of a topic if you are having a hard time grasping it. This is also a great place to form a study group (might be hard right now with distance learning, but if you have a class page or a friend in the class that might be a great idea. If you are with a friend you can go through the information and take turns teaching one another, which makes excellent reinforcement.
If group study is not really your thing I highly recommend drawing everything out. Can you relate the central dogma of molecular biology to the different parts of the cell? What about the major metabolic processes? Make a table for everything that is prokaryotic vs eukaryotic. Understand how bonding works and how forces such as pH might affect it. If you understand this then you should be able to predict what might occur when you put an enzyme into a pH out of range, and then explain why that it is. At first, the topics might seem really different and that you can data dump after every unit. Please don't! Biology builds on itself and the really small slowly has an effect on the really big. Being able to go from small to big is huge in understanding how things work! Also if you can always review your previous exams!

 

[ZeroTouchMeNot]

Hi! AP Bio Teacher here. Sorry, this is long but I hope it helps!
Where I see my kiddos mess up the most is first lack of basic memorization. There is a whole list of biological jargon you need to be familiar with, ideally to the point where you can pull them out of your brain without some form of prompting. Anki can be good for this.

Second is the application of terms which is what you are probably seeing in your exams. This is where you have to be able to go beyond studying flashcards. I recommend taking notes in class, or if you are an auditory learner recording your lectures and relistening to them on 2x speed. If your class has powerpoints the comment section is an excellent place to take notes because when reviewing the powerpoints you can easily find where you put your notes previously. Someone said this earlier but make sure you star everything that your professor says is important.
SI or if the class has a TA is a great opportunity to get a second person's explanation of a topic if you are having a hard time grasping it. This is also a great place to form a study group (might be hard right now with distance learning, but if you have a class page or a friend in the class that might be a great idea. If you are with a friend you can go through the information and take turns teaching one another, which makes excellent reinforcement.
If group study is not really your thing I highly recommend drawing everything out. Can you relate the central dogma of molecular biology to the different parts of the cell? What about the major metabolic processes? Make a table for everything that is prokaryotic vs eukaryotic. Understand how bonding works and how forces such as pH might affect it. If you understand this then you should be able to predict what might occur when you put an enzyme into a pH out of range, and then explain why that it is. At first, the topics might seem really different and that you can data dump after every unit. Please don't! Biology builds on itself and the really small slowly has an effect on the really big. Being able to go from small to big is huge in understanding how things work! Also if you can always review your previous exams!

Huge help! Thanks a lot!

 

[sgw97]

I'll second teaching to someone else. For me, I know I understand something well when I can teach it to someone else, especially a layperson. My mom and a bunch of my friends know so much about biology now because of this, haha