8 Tips to Tackling Cell Bio
Some of these tips can be applied to other courses as well. Here I will try to focus more on the specifics of this course.
Pay close attention to what they say in lecture. Like with any course. I think this is a given. They’ll tell you directly and indirectly what you have to know for an exam. An example of indirectly is that you might be asked casually to look up what something means (Kelly loves doing this) and they DO come up on exams (to the surprise of some people).
Ask when you don’t understand. I like to put a big huge question mark on my notes when I’m reviewing and write out my questions so when I ask someone for help, I can quickly spot the questions. You can get help:
1. After class (probably the best way is to ask right after lecture when you don’t understand. Understand now, memorize later), during office hours
2. During office hours: great if you want to clarify on a specific concept and you want 1-on-1 help
3. Through TAs who also run their own help and review sessions
4. Discussion board: you’ll be surprised by some of the interesting things your friends ask and how helpful some people are. Learn from others, especially those who’ve done all the textbook readings and read extra articles on the subject [you know, those keeners :)]
Detailed Studying. This is one of those courses where details matter. If they give you examples of proteins that do certain things, you should know them. Yes, all of them. Don’t be scared of memorizing the names of 100 proteins. If you know the functions and what they’re associated with, it really isn’t that difficult. I’ve compiled some strategies below on making it easier to memorize things.
Past exams. Sometimes exams change every year due to the profs that teach it. This is a course that has stayed pretty much the same for the past 3-4 years. From looking at past exams, I can tell you that exam formats haven’t changed much either. You should really go through at least one practice exam before your actual exam because they are pretty representative of the types of questions and things you’ll be tested on. Sometimes, they even put the exact same questions on. However, I am by no means telling you to just do a practice exam as preparation though. That is most likely not going to work.
Organize Info. Some lectures, you might be learning about 7-8 new proteins and this list obviously keeps growing throughout the term. You need to organize and categorize information in different ways. I cannot tell you all the ways to categorize things but I can give you some suggestions. When you’re learning about processes (i.e. exocytosis) classify things by eukaryote or prokaryote. When you’re learning about microtubules, actin filaments, and microfilaments, it’s sometimes easy to get things mixed up since they’re all different parts of the cytoskeleton. Therefore, it’s good for example, to make a chart to organize how things are similar and different in these 3 cytoskeletal structures. Also, when you’re learning all the microscopy and protein separation techniques, it’s good to make a huge chart comparing all of them.
If I have time, I’ll post up some of information that I organized into charts. They are very basic though and intended just to give you a headstart: you’ll probably have to add on much more info. Traditionally, organization of information has been done by using but not limited to comparison charts, flowcharts, and hierarchies. If you would like to learn more about this technique of learning, you can check out some of the stuff I’ve written under the articles section on the homepage.
Refer to the text for diagrams. As Dr. Damjanoski says, you probably could get by without a textbook. Although not worth all the money I paid for (since it’s not like I read it everyday), it was stll definitely helpful to refer back to it when I didn’t understand, specifically the diagrams. Sometimes they’re out of proportion and during lecture, the profs may not have time to give specific details so it’s helpful to go back to those places in the text. Hint: past exam questions have come from these diagrams.
Draw Pathways. Following closely with the previous point, after you have studied the diagrams, try to draw them out. Especially when you hit the cell signalling stuff, I tried to make 2-3 sheets just to summarize the pathways and draw them out a couple times for practice before exams.
Summary Pictures. This is a new technique that I’m exploring. It involves summarizing everything in the form of a picture. I found this extremely helpful in the cytoskeleton section. I’ll post up a picture if I have time but basically, I found this method very effective because instead of trying to memorize many random facts, I summarized all the info I had learned in one picture.
Some of these tips can be applied to other courses as well. Here I will try to focus more on the specifics of this course.
Pay close attention to what they say in lecture. Like with any course. I think this is a given. They’ll tell you directly and indirectly what you have to know for an exam. An example of indirectly is that you might be asked casually to look up what something means (Kelly loves doing this) and they DO come up on exams (to the surprise of some people).
Ask when you don’t understand. I like to put a big huge question mark on my notes when I’m reviewing and write out my questions so when I ask someone for help, I can quickly spot the questions. You can get help:
1. After class (probably the best way is to ask right after lecture when you don’t understand. Understand now, memorize later), during office hours
2. During office hours: great if you want to clarify on a specific concept and you want 1-on-1 help
3. Through TAs who also run their own help and review sessions
4. Discussion board: you’ll be surprised by some of the interesting things your friends ask and how helpful some people are. Learn from others, especially those who’ve done all the textbook readings and read extra articles on the subject [you know, those keeners :)]
Detailed Studying. This is one of those courses where details matter. If they give you examples of proteins that do certain things, you should know them. Yes, all of them. Don’t be scared of memorizing the names of 100 proteins. If you know the functions and what they’re associated with, it really isn’t that difficult. I’ve compiled some strategies below on making it easier to memorize things.
Past exams. Sometimes exams change every year due to the profs that teach it. This is a course that has stayed pretty much the same for the past 3-4 years. From looking at past exams, I can tell you that exam formats haven’t changed much either. You should really go through at least one practice exam before your actual exam because they are pretty representative of the types of questions and things you’ll be tested on. Sometimes, they even put the exact same questions on. However, I am by no means telling you to just do a practice exam as preparation though. That is most likely not going to work.
Organize Info. Some lectures, you might be learning about 7-8 new proteins and this list obviously keeps growing throughout the term. You need to organize and categorize information in different ways. I cannot tell you all the ways to categorize things but I can give you some suggestions. When you’re learning about processes (i.e. exocytosis) classify things by eukaryote or prokaryote. When you’re learning about microtubules, actin filaments, and microfilaments, it’s sometimes easy to get things mixed up since they’re all different parts of the cytoskeleton. Therefore, it’s good for example, to make a chart to organize how things are similar and different in these 3 cytoskeletal structures. Also, when you’re learning all the microscopy and protein separation techniques, it’s good to make a huge chart comparing all of them.
If I have time, I’ll post up some of information that I organized into charts. They are very basic though and intended just to give you a headstart: you’ll probably have to add on much more info. Traditionally, organization of information has been done by using but not limited to comparison charts, flowcharts, and hierarchies. If you would like to learn more about this technique of learning, you can check out some of the stuff I’ve written under the articles section on the homepage.
Refer to the text for diagrams. As Dr. Damjanoski says, you probably could get by without a textbook. Although not worth all the money I paid for (since it’s not like I read it everyday), it was stll definitely helpful to refer back to it when I didn’t understand, specifically the diagrams. Sometimes they’re out of proportion and during lecture, the profs may not have time to give specific details so it’s helpful to go back to those places in the text. Hint: past exam questions have come from these diagrams.
Draw Pathways. Following closely with the previous point, after you have studied the diagrams, try to draw them out. Especially when you hit the cell signalling stuff, I tried to make 2-3 sheets just to summarize the pathways and draw them out a couple times for practice before exams.
Summary Pictures. This is a new technique that I’m exploring. It involves summarizing everything in the form of a picture. I found this extremely helpful in the cytoskeleton section. I’ll post up a picture if I have time but basically, I found this method very effective because instead of trying to memorize many random facts, I summarized all the info I had learned in one picture.