- Joined
- Aug 1, 2000
- Messages
- 76
- Reaction score
- 0
Does anyone have any useful study habits?? I am in Microbiology and I cant figure out a good way to study, since it isn't really memorization.
Micro
- Thread starter jasmineH
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2000
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 0
JasmineH,
Assuming that this is undergrad micro, what really helped me was thinking about the material from a deductive standpoint; what needs to be there in order for the observed phenomenon to make sense? For example, if a microbe can stand extremely hot temperatures, what has to be true about it's plasma membrane for that to make sense? The plasma membrane has to remain fluid, so the P.M. of a thermophile could be expected to have a higher degree of saturated fatty acids or we could expect a lipid monolayer, such as that of Archaea, which offers more stabilty. I also found thinking of things from a functional standpoint to be beneficial; essentially concetrating more on the why of things than the what. For instance in chemotaxis, why does CheZ need to be there is more important than what CheZ is? CheZ dephosphoryltes CheY which allows runs to occur again so that the bacterium can move accordingly. Hope this helps.
Tony
Assuming that this is undergrad micro, what really helped me was thinking about the material from a deductive standpoint; what needs to be there in order for the observed phenomenon to make sense? For example, if a microbe can stand extremely hot temperatures, what has to be true about it's plasma membrane for that to make sense? The plasma membrane has to remain fluid, so the P.M. of a thermophile could be expected to have a higher degree of saturated fatty acids or we could expect a lipid monolayer, such as that of Archaea, which offers more stabilty. I also found thinking of things from a functional standpoint to be beneficial; essentially concetrating more on the why of things than the what. For instance in chemotaxis, why does CheZ need to be there is more important than what CheZ is? CheZ dephosphoryltes CheY which allows runs to occur again so that the bacterium can move accordingly. Hope this helps.
Tony
- Joined
- Jun 4, 1999
- Messages
- 1,594
- Reaction score
- 1
Micro is TOTAL memorization. It's like the Gross Anatomy of second-year. I thought Gross was easy, but Micro is pretty darn hard.
I'd recommend reading Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, which is a "textbook" that a lot of med students across the country use to help them memorize all those wonderful bugs. That's all it's good for because you WON'T learn ANYTHING about the various bugs -- at least anything useful for acing Micro exams. I don't know what to recommend for an undergrad course. We received a package of notes from our professors here, so I mainly studied out of them, read a standard Micro text, and Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple to help me remember stuff.
Tim of New York City.
I'd recommend reading Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, which is a "textbook" that a lot of med students across the country use to help them memorize all those wonderful bugs. That's all it's good for because you WON'T learn ANYTHING about the various bugs -- at least anything useful for acing Micro exams. I don't know what to recommend for an undergrad course. We received a package of notes from our professors here, so I mainly studied out of them, read a standard Micro text, and Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple to help me remember stuff.
Tim of New York City.
