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Studying for Biology? (1 Viewer)

Nadiaa

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I was wondering how you all are doing it? and is it effective?
 

Mushy Goo

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I was wondering how you all are doing it? and is it effective?

So far, I've done all my notes up to the dotpoint that our teacher said would be in our trial. I basically go over and over my notes, then do heaps of practice questions from past papers, school trials, excel books, etc. mark them, go over what I got wrong.

I've also found a really effective way is to get someone who's not as good at bio as you, and teach them. even if it's over msn, them asking you questions reinforces your own knowledge and helps them too!!

How have you been studying for it??
 

Nadiaa

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I've done notes and read over them- but when i sat down to do past paper questions on them i couldnt answer them properly :(
 

etoile rouge

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is it coz u don't know the answer or is it coz its hard to explain it although u know it in ur head?

I'm still writting my notes. It's like they never end :(
 

Nadiaa

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I find it hard to explain it..
and i really hate the designing an experiment questions lol
 

etoile rouge

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I find it hard to explain it..
and i really hate the designing an experiment questions lol
I don't think it should be too much of a problem. Just practice a lot. I sometimes have the same problem. And it can be so annoying. I think it must be because there are specific biological terms that need to be use and its not really part of our everyday language.
 

Mushy Goo

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I hate design a prac questions, I always come up with the most ridiculous experiments, but somehow get fairly good marks for them.. It's weird!!
I think the best way to do well in those questions is to know the features of a good experiment- all the stuff like its validity and reliability, measurability, availability of resources, being carried out over a practical amount of time, all the variables being defined and controlled, blah blah blah.

My bio notes are so long, around 20-25 pages for each topic, excluding pracs, It's crazy!
I haven't even started my other subjects yet :S
 

Nadiaa

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Thanks for the advice.
Good luck with your notes.
*sigh* half the holidays are gone and iv barely did anything!
:( ah wells, lets see how we go :D
 

Mushy Goo

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Haha yeah same to you!!

Mmm I'm so absolutewly screwed for trials.

Also, the important thing for bio- memorising facts and stuff isn't going to help at all, you have to make sure you actually understand the concept. Because if you can understand it you can apply that to different types of questions.

All the best!!
 

Mushy Goo

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Haha yeah same to you!!

Mmm I'm so absolutewly screwed for trials.

Also, the important thing for bio- memorising facts and stuff isn't going to help at all, you have to make sure you actually understand the concept. Because if you can understand it you can apply that to different types of questions.

All the best!!
 

Nadiaa

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Haha yeah same to you!!

Mmm I'm so absolutewly screwed for trials.

Also, the important thing for bio- memorising facts and stuff isn't going to help at all, you have to make sure you actually understand the concept. Because if you can understand it you can apply that to different types of questions.

All the best!!
wow your the first person to tell me not to memorise. everyone says bio is all about memorising..

Ah dont you worry, im just as screwed if nor more were trials are concerned
 

Mushy Goo

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haha well, my teachers have always told us that the best thing is to understand a concept so you can apply it more widely. which makes sense in a way, because there's soooooooooo much content :/
 

Brontecat

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imagining that you begin your hsc work tomorrow (from the beginning)... make notes of every syllabus dotpoint using your textbook & hsc online... memorise that information... and do past papers dating back to 2002... you can achieve a mark of about 82, which isn't too bad :)
 
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bouncing

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um if you've got dotpoint bio& a successone book as well as a study guide (Eg. excel/mac) what u do is read sections outloud and find ways to memorise eg. drawing picture swhatever then
open ur dp bio and do the dotpoints if u can get em good on ya if u cant check the answers at the back

once uve done that section in the doptoin u do the success one and highlight the key questions that alwayyyyssyalways comes up (eg. endotherm/ecto responses - seriously i have personally seen this like 500000 times) also the feedback mechanism etc other ones like that

--> formulate answers and just memorise it.
 

chloeboat

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Doing past papers open book and then marking them until you get to the stage where you can do the papers without your notes has worked for me.

I agree with not memorising. The 8 pointers in bio papers sometimes call for you to mix different areas of knowledge and if you've just memorised and don't understand the concepts, it'll be hard to answer that type of question.
 

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