The sciences are arguably one of the most time-consuming subjects in high school. There are often loads of material to learn within a limited amount of time, inefficient and ineffective studying skills can easily cause you to fall behind in the course, creating a domino effect that could eventually lead to an unsuccessful course experience. As a highschool student studying biology in the IB program, I will be sharing some of my most effective studying strategies.
During Lectures:
No matter if you are in highschool, university, or even elementary school, it is undeniable that paying attention to lectures is one of the most important elements to succeeding in a course. It is understandable that people may think that making notes during lectures is the most effective way of digesting the knowledge taught, which don't get me wrong… It is a great way! However, many students have the urge to write down everything the teacher says. It is important to remember that since there is so much information teachers need to teach in science courses, they will likely go through lessons at a faster pace in order to teach everything in the limited amount of time. In this case, we have to learn how to pick the important information in a lecture.
For example, during our lesson on prokaryotic VS eukaryotic cells, I made sure to make my notes short and clear. I included all the key words and statements, which was enough for me to summarize the things the teachers taught in class. Remember, your notes are not a science report, not everything must be in paragraphs or full sentences. What matters is that you are able to catch all the key information and write them down as reminders for yourself, so this way, you will be able to effectively make notes in class without worrying about the fast pace of the class.
After Lectures (Review):
From my experience with science subjects, it is extremely important to review the knowledge taught in class the night after it was taught. Because there is so much information to digest from the lectures, a lot could be forgotten if not reviewed shortly afterwards. This will not only make it harder for you when studying for future tests, but it will also make you vulnerable to any surprise pop quiz. For those reasons, it is extremely important to review the knowledge learned before it is forgotten.
As for me, I suggest reviewing by making summary notes or flashcards. These strategies will help you effectively summarize and remember the things taught in class, and it will also become a helpful resource when studying for tests. Trust me your future self will thank you!
Studying for Tests:
As much as we talked about tests in the section above, I also have multiple strategies for studying for biology exams. Firstly, I feel that as helpful as notes can be in studying, reviewing and doing practice questions is much more effective and important. Again, I am not saying to not study your notes, as your notes definitely have all the key information. However, by only studying your notes, a lot of students find it hard to actually utilize the information to answer questions. Therefore, doing practice tests and questions could help you in that aspect. Furthermore, in Biology, it is common to be asked a question on a test that has already been shown to you on past homework assignments. For these reasons, studying using practice questions is very important.
Another important tip is to really study the diagrams involved in biology. From my experience with biology tests, it is common for mark-costing questions to ask to annotate or label diagrams. Therefore, focusing especially on the structure and diagrams of concepts would be extremely important in this course.
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