How to study from a textbook

[Virgil]

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I am taking a Genetics course in which the professor has horrible English (I can understand only about 40% of what he says). He posts his lectures online. For the most part, I have decided to learn Genetics from reading the very dense textbook.

I think it is unrealistic to read the book word-for-word, yet I essentially need to master all the information contained therein. How should I go about doing this?

 

[Virgil]

I've heard people compare medical school to drinking water out of a firehose--there is far too much information to consume. I know we will inevitably face this in medical school...is there a trick to getting the most of a textbook in a reasonable amount of time?

 

[Nasem]

maybe some Med student can verify this...

But I think med schools don't exactly grade your exams the same way your undergrad professors grade the exams.... I think in Med schools, there are curves and on top of that... they usually have Pass/Fail grade VS. in your undergrad, you get an actual %age.

Im not saying med school classes are easier, of course not, but they seem to be graded in a way to get mostly everyone to pass

 

[artaxerxes]

I am taking a Genetics course in which the professor has horrible English (I can understand only about 40% of what he says). He posts his lectures online. For the most part, I have decided to learn Genetics from reading the very dense textbook.

I think it is unrealistic to read the book word-for-word, yet I essentially need to master all the information contained therein. How should I go about doing this?

Here's what I did, I never went to class for any of the bio classes that I could get away with doing that for....

1) do nothing for about a month and a half, but remember when the tests are.
2) one or two days before the test, figure out what chapters are on the test, and read them.
3) do any practice problems you have or practice exams day before the test.
4) Show up to test, wonder, "who are all these Fu****s? never seen them in my life", take it, and leave.


never failed for me....Intro bio, molecular bio, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, you name it works.


Why do you think its unrealisitic to read the book word by word? books are meant to be read word by word, thats how they're designed. Read the thing, remember the information, take the test, easy A.

 

[estairella]

Why do you think its unrealisitic to read the book word by word? books are meant to be read word by word, thats how they're designed. Read the thing, remember the information, take the test, easy A.

I think the OP is referring to those dense textbooks with way too much extraneous information (whether it be irrelevant "cute" stories, long complicated molecular signaling pathways or that evil calculus showing up)... if you haven't encountered that kind of textbook, consider yourself lucky.

To OP: Use the posted lecture notes as a guideline to study from (I have some friends who don't ever read the required textbook in their courses and still do better than me.. *sigh*) and cherry pick the topics in the text that seem to correspond. If that's still too much material, then use google/wiki/etc. instead, or hopefully you can find a study guide or shorter/condensed textbook to work with.

 

[Encrypted]

You're not going to UConn by any chance? Because my MCB 200 class sounds just like that.

I'm reading the textbook right now because its just the basics right now.

 

[artaxerxes]

I think the OP is referring to those dense textbooks with way too much extraneous information (whether it be irrelevant "cute" stories, long complicated molecular signaling pathways or that evil calculus showing up)... if you haven't encountered that kind of textbook, consider yourself lucky.

To OP: Use the posted lecture notes as a guideline to study from (I have some friends who don't ever read the required textbook in their courses and still do better than me.. *sigh*) and cherry pick the topics in the text that seem to correspond. If that's still too much material, then use google/wiki/etc. instead, or hopefully you can find a study guide or shorter/condensedin textbook to work with.

in all seriousness, most irrelevant things are easy to recognize, but I think people often overestimate how many things are irrelveant. Singlingpathways for example are very important, and were often tested in my classes. Slides are a good guideline, but there are literally dozens of instances when the professor test outside of them in my undergrad experience. Also, slides are far less informative than the text, and if you only study the information from powerpoints, you will be grossly underprepared. Countless times people tell me that they didn't do well on the test, then I ask, did you read the book? answers almost always, no, I read the slides and went to class.....READ THE BOOK. Its always better to overlearn than underlearn. From my own experience, I generally spent about 12-14hr solid (continuous) preparing for my genetics/molecular bio exams (covering between 60-70pages of material). If you spread that out to 3 days or so, its really not that much.

 

[GoldShadow]

You're not going to UConn by any chance? Because my MCB 200 class sounds just like that.

I'm reading the textbook right now because its just the basics right now.

Oh man, I was going to ask the same thing. Small world.

You mean Ovtchinnikov? Yeah I'm in the class right now too. But I'm good at deciphering foreign accents so I'm not having a very hard time "translating" what he says.


When I read from a textbook, I always take notes on whatever seems important or things I don't know. This makes it easy to go back and read over them later... it makes for easy review.

Also it helps to read the corresponding textbook chapter before lecture... so you have an idea what he's talking about.

 

[super302]

I always read my textbooks word for word, cover to cover, for all my science classes
it takes patience but i guarantee i know 5x as much as the rest of the students and the tests seem much easier

 

[ssquared]

I would find a less dense textbook to study from. I'm not kidding, find one that's easier to read. They all (for the most part) cover the same material, and for an undergrad course there's no need for some really dense graduate level text.

And I second the poster who said read your notes, and then read the corresponding sections from the text. Don't read what you don't need.

 

[DocHeart]

outline the chapter as you read.

 

[MossPoh]

Secondary source of information is always nice. I actually used my mcat review for some courses. If you attend enough of the courses you do adjust to the accent though, I've had so many foreign profs now it takes about 2 lectures to adjust and then I am fine. Using the book isn't that bad, while I wouldn't go as far as one of the other posters to say wait till 3 days before (there are times when you'll be f'ed with that) you can go at your own pace within reason. Pay attention to the big emphasis in the notes and spend most time (75% or so) on understanding those concepts, and then spend the remaining 25% on the other facts.

 

[MossPoh]

outline the chapter as you read.

It is best to not do it as you read, but to wait till the end. Otherwise it never really logs in your head. Read through once, then go through again and outline if you do it. Just like people who go through and highlight everything the first time. One rarely reads that properly and then they just stare at the highlighter mark and go "Oh..I read that! Next!" Nothing can really subistute slowly reading through once, and then rereading and marking parts you recalled as significant the second time. Sucks yes...but beneficial.

 

[ssquared]

Here's what I did, I never went to class for any of the bio classes that I could get away with doing that for....

1) do nothing for about a month and a half, but remember when the tests are.
2) one or two days before the test, figure out what chapters are on the test, and read them.
3) do any practice problems you have or practice exams day before the test.
4) Show up to test, wonder, "who are all these Fu****s? never seen them in my life", take it, and leave.


never failed for me....Intro bio, molecular bio, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, you name it works.


Why do you think its unrealisitic to read the book word by word? books are meant to be read word by word, thats how they're designed. Read the thing, remember the information, take the test, easy A.

Now that I re-read what you've written, I must say that for 99% of people that is horrible, horrible advice.

Were your exams just regurgitation of material? Or did they require you to use the material in a new way? Because maybe it works for the former, but not for the latter.

And OP, go talk to the prof about his view of the text. I once bought a $150 text and slugged through 5 chapters before talking to the prof. She said, "don't read the text! that's a total waste of your time! just look at the pictures!" She was right. I went from a 68 on the first exam to a 95 on the second by listening to her advice.

 

[GoldShadow]

I think artaxerxes was just being sarcastic...

 

[ssquared]

I think artaxerxes was just being sarcastic...

hey, with some people, you just can't tell.

just being careful. 😛

 

[Virgil]

You're not going to UConn by any chance? Because my MCB 200 class sounds just like that.

I'm reading the textbook right now because its just the basics right now.

Actually, no. But I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one facing this dilemma.

 

[Climberak]

I've had the same problem before, this is what helped me.

1. Use the online notes as a guideline for your textbook.
2. Read the whole chapter but pay special attention to the topics covered in class. If you don't have time to do that, then look up the relevant topics (and pictures) in the index/chapters and study those.
3. If there's someone in the class that you know, ask them if they want to study with you. 4 ears are better than 2 if you have a hard time understanding the professor.

 

[Silence]

maybe some Med student can verify this...

But I think med schools don't exactly grade your exams the same way your undergrad professors grade the exams.... I think in Med schools, there are curves and on top of that... they usually have Pass/Fail grade VS. in your undergrad, you get an actual %age.

it depends on the school. at ours, we're not graded against each other so there is no curve. and since we are not competing against each other, it fosters a more cooperative learning environment. the grading is P/F but i know they also keep track of our % score (and hence our rank).