AP Biology Hero

It’s been some time since I’ve had any exams but I still remember the most effective way I studied. 

1. Take a practice exam 

2. Check your answers

3. Be brutal in  grading! Whatever you kind of knew but weren’t positive about gets marked as wrong

4. Group questions into the topics they cover( I usually printed out the exam and cut up the questions into flashcards)

5. Study each topic individually starting with the one with the most cards. Once you finish a topic check every question in the pile and make sure you can easily answer it in detail.

6. Repeat with another practice test until you aren’t able to make any piles since everything you answer is correct.

This really was the most effective way for me to study. I would take good notes in class, read, and review but when it came to the first practice test I always would never do too well. (I’m talking 60% right) I usually keep going with different practice tests (or even the same ones if I didn’t have any others but then you  have to make sure you are actually understanding material and not just memorizing answers) until I was at 90% or higher. 

Makes sure you don’t get tripped up and select a choice that is the exact opposite of the right answer because it looked right at first glance. Stop and make sure you read all the choices!Basically narrow down your choices by trying to contradict each of the possible choices. If you can find a way to prove it is not true then write down that reason and move on to the next choice. Once you’ve eliminated a few choices (seriously, I can’t stress it enough but actually jot down why that choice is wrong in the margins) see what you have left. Now think about the question and the topic it is covering. Go over the topic in your head and figure out what part of it the question is asking about. Look back at your remaining options (if you’ve studied well it’ll only be one or two options) and choose the one that makes more sense. 

As for studying for MCQs, study as you would for any other type of exam (see my post on study tips.) Don’t just do sample questions and look no further than the write answer. Make sure you understand the whole topic the question is asking about. 

I got a question earlier about how to solve MCQs, and since physiology is my least understood topic, I can show how I answer MCQs when I do not immediately know the answer to a question. 

A. Possible answer so let’s keep it

B. Wrong because this is a lymphatic vessel that absorbs digested fats

C. Wrong because glucose and amino acids are absorbed by blood capillaries

D. Wrong because indigestible matter wouldn’t be left on epithelial cells (the lining layer that is specialized for absorption)

E. Wrong because muscle layers are on the outside and are responsible for wave like contractions, peristalsis, which moves waste towards excretion.

For vocabulary (which makes understanding concepts so much easier make flashcards before your class starts a topic. This makes following what your teacher says a lot easier. Then practice them like crazy, mix them up and be super critical about judging if you got it right. 

Then for concepts, after the teacher introduces a topic make a rough outline with room to edit. Then do the reading about the topic and fill in your outline some more. This is huge, write out as much as you are certain about without looking at the book (this gives you an idea of how much you know and how much you need to learn.) Then read it again and go back to your outline and fill in missing information as you learn it. 

Another thing I liked to do is explain it to someone else, this bothered my parents and siblings but it was the perfect method because I knew exactly where I tripped up and what didn’t make sense outside my head which would let me know what I needed to study. 

It might seem like hard work but usually it only took me a couple hours on each concept before I was done and then when test time came all I had to do was revise.

2. Ribosomes are not found in the nucleus where both transcription and replication occur, they are found in the cytoplasm where they play a part in translation.

3. Since Thymine and Adenine are breaking apart, this means the strand being used as a template is DNA and both replication and transcription use DNA as a template strand.

4. Complementary base pairing is used in both replication and transcription

Hmm, does it have to be about a specific topic or have any guidelines to follow? There are literally thousands of experiments you can set up. A really simple lab that I did in college was looking at the bacterial contamination of different door handles to your cell phone and seeing how they compare. 

Hi, I'd be happy to help. 

I'm not sure what exactly you are looking for so just to be very general I can tell you that bacteria can reproduce on its own asexually and has the cellular machinery to do so.Viruses work a little differently. They need to infect a host cell and once inside the cell they use the cell's machinery to reproduce themselves and create more viruses.