"I felt like I was drowning in a bottomless pit of molecular oblivion." - Caleb Stevens So there's lots of fun learning experiences in college. Some of them end up being really difficult, but you can do it!
First I would love to recommend you to read this post from a good friend, Caleb Stevens. He hits the nail on the head; really really solid advice. Check it out: https://cstevens14.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/3-things-math-has-taught-me-about-life/ This is a complicated topic because every class is different and your study style is going to be unique as you develop as a student (see one of the big 5 posts on studying). That being said, here's a brief class by class breakdown of the classes I struggled with the most and what ended up working for me. The best way to use this is to think through how these things can work for your learning style. This is just what I did to study; you need to think it through in your own filter. I learn best through reading, and that is somewhat unusual (and why chemistry kicked my tail), so reprocess this in terms of you. Also these are the things I tried to do, real life happens a lot and it can be difficult to actually get everything done and still keep priorities straight. Just stuff to shoot for. I hope this is helpful! :D General Chemistry This is the crazy slap in the face welcome to college class. I struggled man. First test I walked in with I love science high school swag after barely studying (although I thought I was prepared), and I got put in my place hahaha. Legit chemistry has never really has come naturally to me, and my main advice would be to go to office hours (You get to go ask specific tutoring questions for FREE from someone who has Phd, wants you to do well, and is writing the test. You can't beat that.) and to get tutoring when you don't understand something. For me that meant I was in the chemistry tutoring center all the time.
Biology/VPHY3100/Microbiology This is my major and the best classes ever! :D Check out my previous post on how I take notes in biology. If they give you a study guide before the test, then I would go through that study guide, shoot to fill it out a couple days before the test, and then read through it everyday till the test.
Organic Chemistry
Biochemistry
Genetics
It is a difficult class, but I took it during my MCAT semester and was able to do well. That being said I have several friends who got kinda burned by it. For me the key was to just spend all your time working problems, and I found the breakouts really really helpful. My experience and main takeaway from the class was that science as a whole doesn't really know hardly anything about genetics, and so the main challenge of the class is that you have to understand current experiments and theories about how things work as opposed to something like ochem where the challenge is intrinsically difficult content and unclear expectations. The way that worked out in the class would be the tests were essentially six or seven puzzles loosely based on experiments (like the break out questions), and you had to figure them out. Some people did the homework and break out questions and were able to see connections between those problems and the test puzzles to do well, but others would study a lot and know the content well but not be able to do the puzzles and wouldn't do well. You can do it though, the thing to do is to just work problems. It was actually the last class I took with problem based studying. I really enjoyed the content. Cell Biology Underclassmen, you should not worry about this class. Don't think about it until you get to it. The only take away for you really should be that whenever you're learning something in any biology related class try to really learn it because it will come back during cell biology. If you've learned it well, then that means easy test questions. If you haven't learned it well, then this is one last chance to try to understand it before you graduate. Hey senior, congrats on getting this close to graduation!! :D. At this point, you're a pro. You know what works for you. They take a lot of the content you've learned throughout Biology, Genetics, VPHY3100, and Biochemistry and review it at a higher level of detail. By the time you get to this class, you will be ready for it. This is the class they pull back the curtain and tell you how much of what you've learned is guesswork and how much we know for sure. Super interesting class. Fight the senioritis and finish the drill. The arch is like 4 months away.
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This is just something that I wanted to share because I haven't seen very many other people take notes the way I do, and its something that I think is really helpful. Here's an example of a slide from my cell bio class this semester: So lets say I'm reviewing for the test and I'm looking at this slide just as the professor gave it to me. Not very helpful is it? It looks like it might be about these green, blue, and red things and there are arrows moving things around, but its kind of hard to get anything else out of it.
So what I do is as class starts I download the powerpoint, save it as a pdf, and then use Preview (for mac, I'd assume adobe would let you do this too since pdf's were their idea) to annotate on to the slides. This saves time because I don't have to write down every detail he says, and it also lets me label pictures better so that it is easier to understand when he comes back around. Some professors are really great about making slides that are great for review, but lots of professors use slides like the one above that aren't nearly as helpful. I tried taking notes on paper and then reviewing slides as two separate tasks, but that took longer and wasn't as effective as keeping everything in one place. I've also seen a lot of people who take notes in the "notes" section of power points, and I just don't know how they can stand it. Its super small text, and then everything else on your computer is there to distract you. Since I'm annotating a pdf, I can make it full screen and then the literal only thing on my screen is what the professor has projecting and then I can type directly onto it. Its great. Here's what they look like with notes, now we can actually remember what this slide is about! (Yay vesicle transport haha) "Admiration is the purest and highest of pleasures" Welcome to my UGA professor hall of fame!! These people are all absolutely incredible.
My UGA Professor Hall of Fame: · Dr. Lemons, Biochemistry · Dr. Bultman, Spanish Literature · Dr. Wells, VPHY3100 · Dr. O'Donnell, Lab Skills · Dr. Byers, Ecology · Natalie Cox, Ballroom Foundations Dr. Lemons’ biochemistry class made the subject relevant, engaging, and accessible and taught me things that I have used over and over on the MCAT and upper level classes. Beyond the classroom, she is an incredible person as well; she authentically cares about each student in her classes. She knew my name BEFORE the first day of class from a small interaction we had had earlier in my college career. Nicest lady ever. If you can’t take her class, you owe it to yourself to at least go to one of her seminars on Science & Faith. The Drs. Lemons are both tenure-track professors at UGA, she teaches biochemistry and he teaches American religion, and the seminar they give with other colleagues of theirs about once a semester is incredible. Candid conversation between experts on a topic that is relevant to everyone. I had an incredible high school teacher lay a solid foundation for me in the Spanish language, and then Dr. Bultman took that foundation and sculpted it into fluency. Absolutely loved her class, it could have been/should have been crazy hard but her skill made it enjoyable while my Spanish just took off. Authentically cares about her students as individuals. Dr. Well’s made action potentials and cell membrane transporters make sense to me when I had absolutely zero background walking into her class, and honestly VPHY3100 was my favorite difficult major class at UGA. She is really good. Dr. O'Donnell's lab skills class was awesome. That class could have been really tedious and difficult, but he made it enjoyable and I really learned a lot. I actually started to understand all of the research techniques other biology classes discussed and I did in lab; it was neat. I would highly recommend this before CBIO3400 if it makes sense in your schedule. Dr. Byers made Ecology super fun and engaging. He is really passionate about his subject, and it makes his class really interesting. Finally, Ms. Cox’s ballroom class is just a really great time and you’ll learn a ton. I’ve taken Beginning Tennis, Intermediate Tennis, Ballroom I with Dr. Wheeler, African Drumming, Spanish service learning, and Singing for non-music majors, and Ballroom II with Ms. Cox was the most enjoyable class out of all of those. She’s just great, if you can’t fit that class into your schedule you should try to take one of her classes at Dancefx downtown. Who is your top 5 so far? For bonus points: Have you written them thank you notes? It can be pretty fun to recognize excellence, and it'll make their day. |
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