Taxonomy: What to know?

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UCSD1984

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I'm going through the Taxonomy chapter in Cliff's, and for some reason I have a feeling that there's no way in heck they would ask questions about a difference in septa between fungus groups. This is just one example I'm talking about. There's so much detail about each and every group that I feel as though I'd have to spend 3-4 days on Cliff's Taxonomy alone to have it down cold. My assumption could be wrong, obviously.

I'm truly at a loss as to what I should focus on. The last thing I want to do is spend too much time on this Chapter and all of its intricate details.

Can anyone lend me a hand? Specifically, not "what to study" per se, but rather what to focus on. Differences between phyla in each Kingdom? Differences between classes?

Also, I'm a bit confused as to what constitutes a phyla, class, order, family, genus, and species.

Genus and species aren't too confusing...but for example, on page 159 of Cliff's (Kingdom Animalia); is Cnidaria/Nematoda/Annelida/etc. considered a phyla? If so, what constitutes the class, order, and family?

Sorry for the ******ed question.
 
I'm going through the Taxonomy chapter in Cliff's, and for some reason I have a feeling that there's no way in heck they would ask questions about a difference in septa between fungus groups. This is just one example I'm talking about. There's so much detail about each and every group that I feel as though I'd have to spend 3-4 days on Cliff's Taxonomy alone to have it down cold. My assumption could be wrong, obviously.

I'm truly at a loss as to what I should focus on. The last thing I want to do is spend too much time on this Chapter and all of its intricate details.

Can anyone lend me a hand? Specifically, not "what to study" per se, but rather what to focus on. Differences between phyla in each Kingdom? Differences between classes?

Also, I'm a bit confused as to what constitutes a phyla, class, order, family, genus, and species.

Genus and species aren't too confusing...but for example, on page 159 of Cliff's (Kingdom Animalia); is Cnidaria/Nematoda/Annelida/etc. considered a phyla? If so, what constitutes the class, order, and family?

Sorry for the ******ed question.
hey, I feel for u- I had the same questions when I was studying...It'd be a little much to post the answers to all of these q's tho, so if u want to u can PM me and I'd be happy to help
 
hey, I feel for u- I had the same questions when I was studying...It'd be a little much to post the answers to all of these q's tho, so if u want to u can PM me and I'd be happy to help

Thank you my friend. Anyone else have some input?
 
I know exactly what you mean.. this section is so boring b/c of that so hard to memorize... However, don't get caught up in the details... if you do enough questions, you will see that there are specific things that they really want you to know like knowing that nematocysts are one of the charc. of cnidarians and so on... if you can make a table with general charc. that would be best... same for ECOLOGY... I only got one question out of each on the real test!
 
I know exactly what you mean.. this section is so boring b/c of that so hard to memorize... However, don't get caught up in the details... if you do enough questions, you will see that there are specific things that they really want you to know like knowing that nematocysts are one of the charc. of cnidarians and so on... if you can make a table with general charc. that would be best... same for ECOLOGY... I only got one question out of each on the real test!

Thanks Noorallah. I guess I'll do my best and hopefully get a feel for what they want from me when I take a practice exam.
 
Kaplan is all you need. Cliff's is for AP Biology which, IMO, is beyond the scope of the DAT
 
I got like 5 questions from taxonomy. Know symmetry, germ layers, skeletal support, Phylum, examples of each phylum, body cavity and etc.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. What do you all think of the summarized tables available from DATQVault?
 
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