Study Tips for College and High School Students

If you are struggling in school, it might help you to change your approach to studying. I'm sure you know all of the usual recommendations: make a schedule, take a short break every 20 minutes or so, reduce distractions, read the chapter before class, organize your materials, etc. All of these are good ideas, but none of these address a basic problem of unsuccessful studying. It's possible that you are not really thinking about the material in a way that will help you remember it. I'm going to cover 2 study tips and techniques that can change the way you think about the material and that will therefore change how well you learn and the grade you receive.

The most important element of good studying?: be interested.

Okay that's easier said than done. What if you think the topic is boring? Well, if the material or the presentation doesn't naturally grab your attention, you must interject your own interests into the material.

The second most important part which will help with the first: You must ASK QUESTIONS. Ask questions until you become interested. Ask questions during lecture, while reading, while talking to people about the topic, while looking at flash cards. ASK QUESTIONS. When you are asking questions you are thinking about the material and making connections between things that help you remember the material.

Plus, if you're interested, you will be enjoying studying a lot more than if you are not.

Back to being interested... Use your own interests to generate interest in the material.

Do you like to watch movies? Compare elements of what you are studying to the plot, setting or characters of a movie.

* If you are studying biology, decide which part of the animal, plant or specific pathway or ecosystem would be your favorite movie star and why.

* Write your own script where the parts carry out their mission as if it was an adventure.

* Ask yourself questions about what is going on while you do this - delve deeper.

Do you like to do art? Make a collage, painting or drawing that represents what you are studying in some way.

Do you like to dance?

Make up movements that represent what you are studying. Involve other people to do the dance with you. You might even be able to get some extra credit if you share.

Do you like to travel?

Approach the topic as if you are studying international relations. Which thing, part or party you are studying would have trouble with the others and why?

Do you like music?

Write songs about your topic, or write new lyrics for your favorite songs that are about the topic you are studying. Try to make it funny or sexy, as you're more likely to remember it that way. Challenge your friends to write raps about different topics to share with each other. Another opportunity for extra credit?

Biology Bingo Cards

When we think about science subjects, we often think of them as being about learning laws, theories, and perhaps mathematical formulae. Thus when we think about studying a science subject involves, we can easily overlook that it also involves learning many facts and details. Like other science subjects, studying biology requires learning numerous facts - for starters, the names of animal phyla and plant divisions, the parts of cells, the names of various biological processes, and other specialist terminlogy associated with the subject.

Since knowing the core facts of the subject is essential precursor to a decent understanding of biology, good teachers are always on the look-out for ways to help their students learn these facts. Sometimes a certain amount of rote learning may be unavoidable, but enjoyable and educational classroom activities are often a better way for students to learn. In particular, educational games can be very effective as a learning tool - and one such game that is gaining more and more popularity in the classroom, is bingo.

Bingo, it turns out, is perfect for educational use. This is because almost everyone knows how to play the bingo, and even if they don't the game is so simple that they can quickly learn, plus the fact that bingo can be modified to teaching pretty much any subject, including biology, by using bingo cards printed with words or phrases related to the subject of biology, instead of numbers. Additionally, the game has the advantage that it does not require expensive specialist materials, which is quite significant when you consider the financial limitations that educators work under nowadays.

In order to play biology bingo, each student is given a bingo card, the teacher plays the part of the bingo caller, and then you play bingo. Of course, teachers have the option of modifying the game to better serve its educational purpose, perhaps by encouraging class dicussion after items are called out, or by asking students to describe the items that they have ticked off from their bingo cards.

Of course if you'd planning to play biology bingo in the classroom, you will need some bingo cards containing items related to biology. The simplest way for teachers to obtain them, is by the teacher printing them off using a standard Windows PC. This is very straightforward, even for computer novices, because you can either use ready-made bingo printables that are available online, or you can get easy-to-use and affordable bingo card creator software, which can print any sort of bingo cards that you might want.

How to Study Biology to Get an A-Plus

Biology is the study of life in its entirety. The growth of biology as a natural science is interesting from many points of view. One feature of this growth is changing emphasis. Initially it was description of life forms, identification, nomenclature, classification of all recorded life forms. In recent years, Physics and Chemistry have been applied to biology and the new science of Biochemistry and Biotechnology have become the dominant faces of Biology. Medicinal practice, green revolution and the advancement in biotechnology has made the presence of biology felt by the common man.

The key to success in Biology is hard work. It means management of time and energy. Biology is a vast subject which requires a great and clear-cut understanding of each topic. Trying to cram notes will never lead to success unless rigorous effort is made in comprehending them. Being a very vast subject, developing interest in it is very important for success. One must have a passion for nature, to understand how things have developed and marvel at the beauty of nature.

To do well at biology, both the quantity and quality of time spent on it are important. A substantial time commitment is required to understand the subject in its entirety. Many students are discouraged when they get unsatisfactory even after spending hours studying for tests,. This may happen when the studies done by them do not lead to comprehension but only cramming effort. The test requires one to integrate concepts from different lectures, and to apply these principles of biology covered in class to evaluate new situations during the test. High-quality work entails preparing for such questions. Preparing entails organizing the mass of new information in such a way that it helps you understand the way the concepts are related to each other

To be successful, a student must carry out lecture follow-up activity i.e. rewriting their lecture notes. This could be done by re-organizing the information studied during the session in a way that conforms to your mental "landscape." Better than rewriting your notes, it helps you to discern the patterns and relationships between concepts leaving no doubts.

The lecture follow-up activity would involve the following:

1. Make a list of the important concepts from the lecture.

2. Rank the concepts from most general to most specific.

3. Circle the concepts that are linked with a solid line.

4. Label the line with a linking phrase.

5. Work down the page, adding increasingly specific concepts and looking for cross-links, which should be drawn with dashed lines.

6. Do a second version for all the concepts with the goal to add formerly unnoticed cross-links and to organize the map so that it flows as logically and as clearly as possible.

Often students are not able to organize themselves in the correct manner and are not able to do well despite their best efforts. At this time, it is best to get expert help which can help the student put things in order.

To sum up all, the mantra to excel in biology is hard work and practice. The combination of these two can do wonders if done properly. The emphasis should always be on the deep understanding of the concepts. Further practice will enable development of right kind of approach required to answer questions during the exam. Amalgamation of a good understanding with a good approach to answer questions would lead to the path of - "SUCCESS".