Last week I was studying for my MCB150 midterm to the neglect of all other duties, human relationships, and hygienic concerns. In the midst of fervent desperate scribbling, a few thoughts occured to me about proper exam preparation for upper div biology classes.


o. Preread. Review the lecture slides before going to lecture.
It's easy for me to feel lost in the middle of a fast-paced lecture with strange numbers and theories flying wild, so examining the slides ahead of time is a way to get some purchase on that slippery slope.
1. Take relevant notes during class.
Relevant can actually be a tough call. Transcribing every word out of the professor's mouth = fighting a losing battle, and it doesn't force me to think about what the prof is saying. I do this as a last resort if I'm utterly confused.
2. Review the lecture immediately.
Did I really understand the lecture? Write down questions or topics that weren't clear to me.
3. Summarize.
Draw a diagram. Write an outline of the lecture. Note important new concepts, vocabulary, pathways, schema. Schlissel was a fantastic teacher in that he posted very complete yet concise outlines for almost all his lecturers. I stapled the outlines to the back of each lecture, very convenient come exam prep time.
4. Flash cards.
Diagrams on plain paper are superior for more involved ideas, but flash cards are a very fast way to remember basic concepts. Definitions, nomenclature, amino acid structures, biochem assays, what enzyme does what to which substrate, etc. I especially still need to memorize assays this way, want to access them easily.
5. Office hours.
I admire those students with whom the professor is on a first-name basis. Such daring, such confidence!
6. Study a bit of each subject each day.
Even if it's just a few minutes. I trap myself by thinking that I need huge blocks of time to study one subject, so if I'm doing a CS3 project on Tuesday I can't do MCB140 reading too. This belief is too conducive to procrastination. A lot can get done in ten minutes.
7. 1-3 page outline of the entire unit.
Good exam prep. Condense all those details into their essential patterns. Relationships between the big ideas.
8. Practice exams.
Actually, this could be at the beginning of the list, because practice tests are the best glimpse into the mindset of a sadistic professor, so they should be triaged as early as possible. What kind of questions are important? What details does the professor obsess over? Last semester in MCB 110, Tjian exclusively tested on assays whereas McCollin (?) was focused on protein functions, pathways, and substrates. This semester Schlissel's exam was pretty straight-forward and rounded out, but Urnov is a whole different thing.

[10.05.07 Edit:]
9. Ask the Professor directly what will be on the exams.
Especially in office hours and at the review session, if the prof is the one holding the session. Why play guessing games when you can just find out directly from the source? Some profs act like it's offensive of students to ask, which is ridiculous. Of course, it's better to be specific than to expect him/her to tell you every question of the exam. I wish I had asked Urnov how much we need to study yeast genetics and tetrad genetics.

For the first MCB150 exam, I only really did steps 1 and 4 satisfactorily, and a bit of 8. On the other hand, 150 is the first upperdiv MCB class where I paid near-total attention during every single lecture, so that compensated a bit for my crappy work ethic. As a result, I didn't really have to cram, it was more of an intense review process. If I can somehow catch-up on the MCB140 material, however, I will be qualified to write THE definitive treatise on college cramming, because I am FIVE WEEKS BEHIND in this class!! I am a very bad genetics student.

Anyway, these study methods are far from novel, but I sorely need to improve my study habits and this way is very thorough. Maybe too thorough. Does learning have to be so inefficient? I will assess the effectiveness of this approach after round 2 of midterms next month.