Studying for Bio

[adent23]

Hi everyone,

I started studying for the DAT almost two weeks ago, and I'm starting to have a difficult time sticking to Ari's schedule for the biology review. I'm about five chapters into Cliffs AP bio, and I have been supplementing it with Feralis's notes (now BC Bio Notes). Basically I spend two days on a chapter where I skim one chapter of Cliffs, skim the corresponding chapter in Feralis's notes, and then take notes based on both sources. In a sense, I feel using both resources to make my own notes will be beneficial in the long run, but I'm worried that the longer chapters will require much more than a couple of days to complete. In turn, this could reduce the amount of time I have to spend on practice tests and DAT Destroyer.

As I read through each chapter in Cliffs, I have a difficult time deciding how much detail I should be including in my own notes. Feralis's notes have been great to help me focus on what I should be writing down, but then I end up spending additional time cross-checking both sources. I feel like Cliffs almost goes into too much detail, but Feralis's notes don't provide enough detail.

Like most people, I am just trying to find an efficient way to review everything, while giving myself enough time to practice what I have reviewed. Any advice on how to approach note taking with Cliffs, or suggestions based on what I mentioned above would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

I should also mention that I'm take my DAT in the beginning of July. I started studying early because I don't finish this current semester until the third week of May.

Thanks in advance!

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[FeralisExtremum]

That's pretty surprising to me - I tried to take the pertinent details from Cliff's, but I also added additional details from other sources. I think making your own notes from multiple sources is a great idea, but from experience it's extremely time consuming. The Word version of my notes (they're separate from BC's bio notes since I stopped working on them there) is editable and might be a good starting foundation to edit in your own material without it taking too long.

 

[adent23]

That's pretty surprising to me - I tried to take the pertinent details from Cliff's, but I also added additional details from other sources. I think making your own notes from multiple sources is a great idea, but from experience it's extremely time consuming. The Word version of my notes (they're separate from BC's bio notes since I stopped working on them there) is editable and might be a good starting foundation to edit in your own material without it taking too long.

Hi Feralis. Your notes are incredible and I'm glad that I can use them in making my own notes. I do appreciate the extra time you spent adding additional details from outside sources, as that info really does help solidify some of the topics. When I mention that your notes don't provide enough detail, what I meant is that some of your bullet points that summarize a paragraph or two from Cliff's may not make sense unless you have Cliff's right in front of you. I recognize that your notes are meant to be supplemental, in that one should have already read Cliff's before getting into your notes. I was just pointing out that it would be difficult to fully utilize your notes unless you had already reviewed Cliff's.

I really appreciate your advice on using the word document of your notes to set up my own notes. Do you know where I can find that document file?

 

[FeralisExtremum]

Hi Feralis. Your notes are incredible and I'm glad that I can use them in making my own notes. I do appreciate the extra time you spent adding additional details from outside sources, as that info really does help solidify some of the topics. When I mention that your notes don't provide enough detail, what I meant is that some of your bullet points that summarize a paragraph or two from Cliff's may not make sense unless you have Cliff's right in front of you. I recognize that your notes are meant to be supplemental, in that one should have already read Cliff's before getting into your notes. I was just pointing out that it would be difficult to fully utilize your notes unless you had already reviewed Cliff's.

I really appreciate your advice on using the word document of your notes to set up my own notes. Do you know where I can find that document file?

I see what you mean - it was definitely compressed from Cliff's and it would be difficult to learn from the compressed notes on first pass.

Send me a PM with your email and I'll send the latest notes file over to you.

 

[Cthuluhoop]

I just took the test a month ago and scored a 27 in bio. Because of how much content is on this section I was most nervous about it, and was honestly surprised at how easy and basic the questions were. I had a pretty strong bio background thanks to my undergrad classes, but I didn't take anatomy so that was all pretty new to me since I haven't seen it since freshman year Bio 2. What I did was read Cliff's chapter by chapter slowly to absorb as much as I could and get the big picture, then read Feralis' corresponding notes to hone in on details and fill the gaps. After I felt like I knew most of Cliff's on about the third read through of it, I pretty much only read Feralis as much as I could as I approached test day. I'd keep reading sections I knew pretty well but would review more frequently chapters I felt I was weak in because I learn through repetition and rereading.
There weren't any questions on my test that Feralis didn't cover in enough detail, a question I know I for sure missed was due to wording of the question not because I didn't know it.

Like Feralis said above, I personally wouldn't recommend make my own notes, with the resources and notes we have at our disposal it would have taken me too much time when I could have been studying Feralis' notes or Cliff's. But everyone is different and you have to mold it to how you learn and retain best, so if you learn best through making your own notes or rewriting things do that!