how to best study human physiology

[Deepa100]

Hi All,
I need to figure out how to do better in this class. I took an evening class w/o lecture. We were told to read the text book and were not given any notes. I tried preparing notes but it is taking too long. I got 40/48 in the first test. I can make up for 4 points by doing a poster project, which I will. I want to do well in the 2 other mid terms and final. There is a lab component but there is no grade for it. I need to get 44/48 in the next 2 tests and 90/98 in the final to get an A. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
thanks!

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[spicedmanna]

Well, first of all, figure out what happened on the first test. How did you configure yourself to score what you did? How could you improve? What kinds of questions did you get wrong? You get the idea.

How I studied for physiology was by reading each chapter carefully, and then outlining all the relevant material. If it was pathway related, I would draw out the pathway and review it until it became second nature to me (get a whiteboard). I liked generating my own notes from the book because I generally hate reading and re-reading, so it offered an easy way to review the material. Sometimes making notecards help, too. Taking notes also gave me a way to engage my kinesthetic learning processes (I often learn by doing). To top things off, I frequently tutored my classmates on the material. I found that teaching the stuff really forced me to know the material super well.

Good luck!

 

[lilnoelle]

Costanzo

 

[spicedmanna]

When I was working at the NIH, I found this book to be excellent in terms of review for Physiology:

Review of Medical Physiology

 

[Lshapley]

My methods are similar to Spicedmanna, but I am lucky enough to have my physiology tests coming straight from the ppt presentations.

One thing I would add that might help your grade is to meet with the professor during office hours. If you are having difficulty making notes from the chapter because it is too time consuming, that tells me that you might be having difficulty distinguishing what the professor finds important from what is unimportant. Meet with him/her and use the time to see what they consider important.

 

[TerpDO]

if you have lots of text and they are describing a diagram, I would try to DRAW OUT THE DIAGRAM WITHOUT COPYING ANY OF THE ONES PROVIDED. then take what you draw and compare it with the ones from the book to see if you got anything wrong, this takes longer initially but you won't have to review that material more than only a few times because taking the time to form it from scratch in your head makes it stick. works for biochem too

 

[Deepa100]

Thanks for the responses.
No, I don't know what the professor thinks is important. There are no classes for this, it is an independent study class.