Taxonomy

[ILOVETEETH]

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Just a question about how in depth to go into this section. I seem to have trouble memorizing all of the different types of subdivisions and what goes into each one.

What types of questions have you guys seen on the actual DAT?

Thanks for the help!

 

[sxr71]

Just a question about how in depth to go into this section. I seem to have trouble memorizing all of the different types of subdivisions and what goes into each one.

What types of questions have you guys seen on the actual DAT?

Thanks for the help!

I think helps to sort of understand Taxonomy. Taxonomy is closely related to evolution, each phylum is an improvement on the former in a sense. There is a particular pattern to how those phyla developed. Those little things like bilateral or radial symmetry have happened as developments. Sometimes they go back and forth as you proceed through the phyla and those are best viewed as exceptions. As you study taxonomy, you'll start to just remember the exceptions because you understand the pattern of evolution. It really helps if you had a professor during your second biology pre-req who impressed upon that pattern of evolution.

I think that everything in the Kaplan Blue Book is fair game, and that remembering all of it is definitely to your advantage. It really isn't a lot to remember.

 

[HBomb]

I also think its helpful to understand taxonomy. I'd recommend understanding the major characteristics of each kingdom (using older 5 kingdom system per ada.org), the characteristics of the major animal phyla, and probably also the characterisitics of the sub-kingdom protozoan (kingdom protista). For each, know the types of organisms, major characteristics of the group, digestive system, circulatory system, nervous system, nitrogen waste excretion, and major evolutionary turning points. That's my recommendation anyway. Personally, I don't think the Kaplan Blue Book does a good job of taxonomy, and I had to refer to my other college texts (but that's what I did, though a lot of people did just fine by only using the Blue Book).