Q&A for How to Study for Biology

Outline a strict study schedule and break down the biology portions into small, attainable goals. Depending on how much information you need to learn in two months, you can break up the sections accordingly. Make sure to schedule time to complete practice quizzes and exams to ensure you're successfully learning the material.

The best way to retain information is by repetition. If you'd like to remember answers until the end of exams, you should study the corresponding material every day and quiz yourself often to make sure you have still retained that information. It may also be helpful to link information to things you already know in real life (e.g., in HYPOtonic cells, there is more water outside the cell than inside the cell, so water flows into the cell and the cell swells like a HIPPO).

Before answering a question, read it through a few times. Try to understand what the instructor wants you to answer. The way you structure your sentences is also important. Also, practice more. If you do a lot of exercises, then you will be able to answer any questions.

Just read through your notes and stay calm. Try a few practice exams until you feel confident that you know the material. Take deep breaths, keep a positive attitude, and focus on the exam.

It might be because you haven't quite learnt the material well enough. Try writing all the important text on one page and highlight the important keywords. Read it a few times and then hand it over to your family member, friend or any other person, and tell them to question you about everything that's on the paper until you know everything perfectly. This works if you hand them the book, too, but this way you have less things to learn. Also, try asking someone who has already taken the test or class to tell you what questions are most likely to be asked.

Try watching video tutorials of the topic you are studying. It should be more fun and enjoyable to learn and when you enjoy something, you remember it. Use flashcards, vocab lists and copy glossaries and pin these up in places where you'll stare at it.

Keep a schedule with breaks in between, and when the time for starting your studying comes, keep repeating to yourself the key words from the chapter. If that doesn't work, you can tell a family member to remind you about your study schedule till you remember on your own.

Instead of learning all the detailed things over and over again, just try looking over the key information or the parts you don't understand. Fast revision, however, can be bad as you will end up remembering less than if you studied for longer. After 24 hours we forget 2/3 of what we've learned. So the less you study, the less you will get out of it.

Study and learn the material well, and don't study just before the day of the test or the exam.

Flash cards can be very helpful. Often it depends on how you remember things. You might like to use color highlighters and color code ideas and subjects together. Reading out loud can help those who learn in an auditory manner. Videos are often a great way to learn and can be helpful in reminding you of topics. It gives the subject a visual and audio association and you can remember by think about those.

Try to put facts into a "big picture" and see how the science is useful for making predictions. For instance, a :big picture" of chemistry is that we are literally star stuff - i.e. the elements in our bodies come from stars that died long ago. And predictions can be made about the behaviors of those elements by applying the rules of the periodic table. For biology, the big picture is that all earth life is related, and we can predict and reconstruct that "Tree of Life" by applying the concepts of evolution - biology's unifying theme. Evolution makes similar predictions about all of life's facts. When you hear a fact in biology, ask yourself how it holds up to evolutionary predictions.

Make sure you have a notebook for biology and write down all the important notes. If there is a definition, underline it and read it a few times every day. This will help you remember your definition.

Walking around your room while reading a biology book. Do some light exercises. Wash your face with cold water when you feel yourself starting to get sleepy. If you can, try drinking a cup of coffee or a soft drink with caffeine.

Instead of using your notes before a test, you can use flash cards, just jot down key words and phrases on the cards and look them over right before. Or you can write all the major points of a chapter on one sheet. This way you can just go through the sheets by chapter and will be able to review efficiently.

You need to realize that it is important, and motivate yourself to learn it no matter what it takes.

Revise them daily. Go through the root words. Take online tests. Go through exercises. Test yourself. Try to relate biology with your daily life.

You should have a revision program after every biology lesson, so you are on top of your work. It does not have to be too long.15 to 30 minutes is reasonable. Another effective way is re-writing your notes in a much simpler form and highlighting the key definitions.

Self-testing is a great way to find the answer to your question, as well as setting yourself some difficult goals within biology and achieving them.

Note the characteristics. List the differences and compare them. List the similarities and find a relation between them.

If you have any friends in the grade above you, ask if they have any of their old test papers. If not, make your own practice tests or get together with a classmate and quiz each other. You could even Google the topic you're studying with the words "practice test" and see if anything useful comes up.

Mangifera indica is the scientific name of the mango tree.

You can remember biology well by writing each and every main point a few times and studying for 30 to 60 minutes a day.

Get yourself a tutor! See if your teacher can help set you up with one.

Depending on your level of study, it's usually best to just speed-read what you've learned and have a good night's sleep. Biology isn't the kind of subject you can study at the last minute, because there's just so much content and so many concepts to understand and memorize.

Generally, revising in bulk can have a negative result as opposed to studying in smaller periods of time. My personal revision for finals was in 30-minute increments followed by 10 minute breaks in between. This method can also help with studying several subjects at once by splitting them across 30-minute slots. I would have started at 9am and studied subject 1 for half an hour, then break, then subject 2, etc. while also breaking for an hour for lunch during the afternoon before finishing around 3-5pm. This is effective and tried and tested. Don't forget that diagrams are helpful for the visual learner. It sounds tedious, but depending on your level of education you sometimes have to treat revision like a job.

Try various ways to be more active in class, such as giving yourself a goal per class of how many times you should raise your hand. The more times that you put yourself out there, the less shy you'll feel.

You can make flashcards related to the terms you are unable to remember.

You could eat a snack, drink something with caffeine, or get up and walk around every 10 minutes or so to keep yourself awake enough to study.

Impossible. You will reach a level of education where you are forced to specialize in a particular subfield of biology. For example, I am a microbiologist, which directed me to the path of disease, infection and immunology. The fundamentals of biology is the closest to knowing everything in the subject, but in reality you'll likely spend a lifetime digging into a particular subfield and still have lots left to learn by the time you die.

If you are an auditory learner, it will help tremendously. Or you could make your own questions from your notes, record the questions and answers, and listen when you are waiting or have extra time.