Calling all biology 09ers and previous biology students!

[Hielly]

like powerpoints.. my teacher doesn't make them and luckily a friend of mine from another school had some, and when i looked through it i understood the topic more.. hey does your teacher normally make his/her own notes?

[jackinthepatch]

Oh naa sorry we don't have anything like that. And naa my teacher doesn't make their own notes, so I've got nothing for ya lol. Sorry!

[studyhound]

yeah actually my teacher makes some nifty powerpoints but she just prints them out for us, so cant help ya either mate

[Hielly]

Lool thanks guys anways. ill try telling my teacher to make some, and when she does ill upload em

[Kellie Sewell]

Hi Hielly, to help you study get your hands on some practice questions.  I recommend to my students to get checkpoints.  It contains previous exam questions and you can work through it at your own pace and by topics. (and it has answers)  If your teacher is not giving you good notes (which they should be but that is another issue!!!)  you should be making yourself summary notes from your textbook reading.  Like what Shinny sent you.  By making them yourself it will help you to understand.  Such a shame you don't live near Glen Iris so that you can come to my tutorial classes.  Hope to meet you at my revision lecture in May.  You will get good summary notes from this.

[Hielly]

yeah i'm planning to going to revision lectures. Also i am making my own summary notes helps me memorize alot! i have the checkpoints unit 3 one, i should make a start on those.. and print out some past exams. Hey Kellie, what study habits would you suggest besides writing notes ?

[Kellie Sewell]

The hardest thing about Biology, when answering examination questions, is the structure of your answer.  As a teacher, I see too many times where students write an answer that plays too much "guess what is in my head".  As the person marking the exam/test you know the students would know what they were talking about if you could talk to them but because you have to go by a marking scheme, if parts, keys words etc are missing then a student can get zero for the question.  Reading from a wide variety of texts is good so that you can experience different examples explaining the same concept.  Being able to sit down and explain a concept to someone (like your mum) who doesn't know anything about your topic, but at the end of your conversation does understand, is also good to test your understanding.  Doing many practice exams and get your teacher to mark it because students always mark themselves too easy!!!  He/she can also criticise how you are structuring your answers.  Read the VCAA examination assessment guides for each exam. In my 15+ years of teaching I still think that my students under use me with regards to prac exams etc.