Study Guide and Tips for Courses with Tons of Material
Philip J. Bergmann
Introduction
This study guide contains tips and strategies for learning material in biology courses that have a
lot of material. It does not contain sample questions about the specific material. Courses such as
anatomy and taxon-specific ~ology courses, contain a lot of information that students must learn.
There are many new and strange terms to learn. Students may be expected to learn to identify
many species and be able to classify still more species to their higher taxa. Students may have to
learn many anatomical structures, their functions, and their relationship to other structures. All of
these expectations may seem overwhelming, and if this sounds daunting, that's okay and expected.
These courses are intense and require a lot of time and effort. To do well, you have to stay on top
of the material and repeatedly study it. If you are un willing to put the necessary time and effort
into it, it will be very difficult to do well. Fortunately, there are study techniques that can be used
to help you succeed. This guide is here to help you learn these techniques and give you ideas for
successful learning strategies. Hopefully, it will be useful, and even help you with other classes as
well. The guide is organized into short sections that describe each technique. Some of these tips
you will have heard many times before (probably because they are important). Others are more
focused on anatomy and organismal courses. If you have other strategies that are not included
here, but work well for you, please share them and I can add them to this study guide.
Passive and Active Learning
Studying and learning techniques can be divided into passive ones and active ones. Passive
learning includes things like reading your notes, reading the textbook, and looking at figures or
photographs of material. Active learning includes things like re-writing notes, making and using
flash cards, quizzing and being quizzed by friends, drawing figures or diagrams, and so on. There
is a lot of evidence that active learning is far more effective than passive learning, but the problem
is that it takes more effort, and so, many students stick with passive learning. I try to emphasize
active learning and the tips in this guide are all active learning techniques. Students often say
things like, "I studied for eight hours yesterday!" or, "I've never studied this much for any class
before." The question that needs to be asked is what kind of studying did they do, not how much.
If you use active learning, chances are that you can be equally effective to a passive learner, but
commit far less time. A better way of looking at this is that you will perform better in a class if
you put the same amount of time in by using active learning techniques rather than passive
learning. If you have ever zoned out while reading notes or a textbook, you have first hand
evidence that a passive approach may not be the most effective. By using active learning, you will
do better in your classes than with passive learning.
A terminology intensive course
There is a lot of terminology in anatomy and organismal courses. Each of these courses
introduces students to a lot of new terminology. To learn the terminology, try some (or all) of the
following techniques:
1. Make a list of terms. After each lecture, go through the slides and write down all of the jargon
that is used. Do the same after labs. Rewriting the terms after each class allows you to learn
them more actively. Just reading them is not nearly as effective. Writing down these lists, lets
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Study Guide & Tips
you better understand how much you have to learn. If also lets you evaluate what you already
know and what you still need to learn.
2. Write out definitions. Using your list, write out what you think each term means, then check if
you were right. How could you improve your definition? Did you miss an element of what
the term means? Writing out the definitions is an active way of learning.
3. Make flash cards. By writing the definition on one side of a card and the term on the other you
can quiz yourself or friends. This is highly effective because you can quickly test your
knowledge of many terms. You can use flash cards almost anywhere - while on the bus, while
eating breakfast, or while waiting for a class to start.
4. Understand what the terms mean. Don't just memorize a bunch of hard-to-pronounce words,
learn what they mean. Think about why they are spelled the way they are. For example,
cloaca may seem like a strange term. In Latin, it means sewer, and is used anatomically as a
place where the products of the digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems all get dumped.
The hyoglossus muscle is one that connects the hyoid and the tongue in chamaeleons and is
used to retract the tongue after prey capture. Glossus is tongue in Latin. By understanding the
term, it will be easier to remember what it means.
5. Label diagrams with anatomical terms. A highly effective strategy for learning anatomy is to
take a diagram and label all of the structures. If you need to know the bones in the skull of the
cat, then photocopy a drawing of the cat skull, erase all of the labels and re-label it on your
own. Alternatively, you can just cover up the labeled structures and quiz yourself.
6. Don't miss an opportunity to examine specimens. In the lab, you will be tested on your
anatomical knowledge by being presented with a specimen and asked about structures that you
see. Specimens all look different because they are individuals, and they look very different
from diagrams and drawings. If you don't spend time looking at the specimens, you will not
do very well. This is critical. Ask your instructors if they would open the lab for you outside
of lab time. Taking digital photos of specimens can help, but you have to study them
afterwards, not just leave them on your memory card!
7. Write down how you identify each species. During an organismal course, you will learn how
to identify over a hundred species and you will be expected to identify many other species to
their higher taxa. As you go through the specimens available to you, write down each species
name and how you can identify it. What makes a Sceloporus magister different from a
Phrynosoma solare? If you can learn identifying features, then it will be easier to identify
specimens. Again, go into lab to look at the specimens over and over again.
8. Understand what species names mean. Like anatomical terms, some species names can help
you identify a specimen (but note that this is not always the case). Consider Bufo punctatus.
Bufo means toad in Latin and punctatus indicates that it has spots. This information can help
you identify a specimen. Consider the exam question "Name one species of lizard that
reproduces asexually." If you know the meanings of your scientific names, then it would be
easy to write "Aspidoscelis uniparens" as your answer because uniparens means "one parent".
9. Repetition! Repetition! Repetition! Going over terms and scientific names once or twice
simply doesn't cut it. Since you will need to learn hundreds of terms, you have to go over
them frequently, until they are ingrained in your memory. Use the techniques above over an
over again until you are comfortable using all of the terms as if they are part of everyday
language. In lab and lecture use the terms when talking to instructors or other students.
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Study Guide & Tips
Take advantage of course resources
A lot of resources are available to you on the course website, and they are there to help you learn
the material. Use all of these resources. Some of the most important resources and suggestions on
how to use them are outline below.
1. Lecture note handouts. The Powerpoint slides for each lecture are posted on the course
website before each lecture. Be aware that these slides have a lot of information blanked out
on them, so if you use them as a substitute for attending lecture, you are setting yourself up for
disaster. Download and print the lecture handouts prior to lecture and bring them to lecture.
Use them as a worksheet, and fill in all of the information that is missing on them - there is a
lot. These worksheets/handouts are supplied so that you have an accurate reproduction of the
graphics used in lecture and so that you don't have to write down absolutely everything that is
presented.
2. Lab manual/handouts. Whether or not there is a commercial lab manual being used for the
class, each lab has a handout associated with it and is available on the course website well
before the lab happens. Download and print each handout out prior to coming. Also read the
lab prior to showing up to the lab session. This will allow you to be prepared and get straight
to work looking at specimens and demo material. It is not effective to spend the entire lab
reading things that you should have read before coming. Maximize your time looking at lab
material. You will also see that there are questions posed throughout the lab handouts for you
to answer. The questions are generally not graded, but may be discussed in lab the following
week. Treat the questions seriously and answer them as you work through each lab. They will
help you prepare for lab exams and discussions. Feel free to discuss the questions with labmates and instructors.
3. Assignment guides and rubrics. Dr. Bergmann’s Herpetology course has several assignments
and each one has a guide associated with it on the course website. Each guide has detailed
instructions on how to approach each assignment and what is expected from you. Each guide
also has a grading rubric at its end. Use these guides and rubrics to help you in writing your
assignments. The rubric can be helpful in showing you how much emphasis will be placed on
different parts of the assignment. For example, if one section of an assignment is worth 50%
of the assignment’s grade and another section is worth 10%, this should tell you that more
time, effort, and space should be spend on the first section than the second.
4. Ask questions and meet with the instructors. The course instructors try to make themselves
available to all the students by holding office hours and regularly checking e-mail. They are
also present at each lecture and lab session. Take advantage of their knowledge by asking
them questions and talking to them about difficulties you are having or material that you need
explained in a different way. Please note, however, that instructors are not "on call" and will
not be responding to e-mails 24 hours prior to exams.
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Study Guide & Tips