zoology or botany

[ttran01]

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my school requires 1 semester of either zoology or botany for the BS in biology. im not sure which one i should take. so i was wondering if any info from these courses were in the natural sciences section on the OAT.

 

[kinchung]

I didn't take any botany courses, but i did major in zoology. most of the zoology courses i took expanded on the concepts you learn in general/introductory biology. you talk about mechanisms that trigger behavioral or physical adaptation, you talk about how different environments and species interact to affect each other, you talk about reproduction...etc. you basically get more indepth with topics you address in biology 1 and 2, sometimes there is some chemistry or math involved...e.x. calculating ATP, or figuring out optimum prey/predator ratios...

do you know the course description of your zoology course? It sounds like your zoology and botany courses are introductory or survey type classes that skim over a lot of topics, but not as in depth as the upper level 3000+ courses. I found zoology very intersting. It can be very hands on as well as lecture based, and discussions can involve the whole class.

my school requires 1 semester of either zoology or botany for the BS in biology. im not sure which one i should take. so i was wondering if any info from these courses were in the natural sciences section on the OAT.

 

[scvcstar]

I'd pick botany. There's a lot of plant stuff you should know for the OAT.

 

[jefguth]

I think you much more likely to encounter zoology type questions on the OAT. When I took it a couple years ago, at most we had two plant bio questions. The only question i remember in any detail from the whole OAT was one that had somthing to do with cutting the top of a tree off.... That being said, I'm not so sure anymore whether we had any zoology questions.

 

[ttran01]

thanks for the replys so far..

and kinchung here are the course description for the classes...

zoology: This course covers general principles of zoology. Topics covered include a survey of the animal kingdom, embryology, evolution, genetics, systematics, and comparative anatomy and physiology.

botany: This course covers the general principles of botany for science majors. The emphasis is on anatomy, morphology, life cycles, embryology and physiology of plants and on a plant kingdom survey. All laboratory work includes instructor-directed lecture-discussion consisting of an introduction and analysis of the data and ideas covered.

 

[kinchung]

okay, well, i would have to agree with jefguth, that the material in your zoology class will definitely help you become familiar with the content on the OAT more than the botany class would.

I remember probably at most 3 questions on the OAT that involved strictly plants. One was on the reproductive cycle of some plants (spores, haploid/diploid stages, flowering vs non flowering plants...etc).

Another one was the Calvin cycle, what by products came out of that stage of respiration, how many ATP's were produce....notice, these are topics that you cover in biology. plant related questions shouldn't get much more complex than that.

Other elective courses to take are 1. physiology and/or (2. anatomy), 3. biochem, 4. microbio...in that order

there are over 90 natural science questions on the OAT...good luck.

thanks for the replys so far..

and kinchung here are the course description for the classes...

zoology: This course covers general principles of zoology. Topics covered include a survey of the animal kingdom, embryology, evolution, genetics, systematics, and comparative anatomy and physiology.

botany: This course covers the general principles of botany for science majors. The emphasis is on anatomy, morphology, life cycles, embryology and physiology of plants and on a plant kingdom survey. All laboratory work includes instructor-directed lecture-discussion consisting of an introduction and analysis of the data and ideas covered.

 

[ttran01]

ok thanks for the help

 

[scvcstar]

Actually, yeah now that you provided the descriptions, I think zoology is more useful. I found that I could learn the zoology stuff on my own really well but plant stuff was harder for me to learn on my own. It's all memorization, so you could technically learn everything on your own, but if you feel you're weaker in one than the other, it definitely helps to take a class where they go into gory detail and you'll know much more than you need to for the test (which is a good thing).