I found Bio the hardest to study for because of the huuuuuuge amount of content we had to memorise. It took ages to finish making notes and took just as long to learn them by heart. Along the way, I’ve developed my own way of studying which made life slightly easier. At least I had a routine I could follow so I didn’t have the “where do I begin” feeling anymore. If you need to get over this feeling, read on! Hopefully these tips will help!
Step one: Make notes. (Check out my last post for details on how I make my notes!) I’d suggest to make notes as soon as you finish a chapter in class. Finish as in, when you complete all the exercises and move on to the next chapter. I used to make notes before we did exercises, but later I found out exercises have lots of useful information. I ended up having to add them to my already made notes which were nearly full to the brim, literally there was no white space left. Later I decided to wait until we completely closed the chapter before I made them. But don’t make them any later than that! My number one A Level tip: Never let work pile up!! Resist the urge to do it later!! Resist!
Step two: Underline the keywords in your notes. I like to treat this step like “light memorising”. I usually do this a few days after I make the notes. I’ll go over the notes and underline the keywords with a coloured pen. Sometimes I’ll also put a box around the sub topics, to add some visual interest #visuallearner. This step is like a nice reminder for the whole chapter, without requiring too much brain power.
Step three: Memorise! Honestly, I really don’t like using the word memorise. It makes me seem like I’m just stuffing things into my brain then regurgitating it. Though, for Bio its kinda true, that’s kinda what you have to do. (But make sure you understand what you are memorising! ) So what I’d do is go section by section. I’ll read the first section, which is the top left one, then cover it, and try to recite it from memory. I try to picture the diagrams, the underlined words to help me remember. After I remember it, I move on to the next section, and the next and the next until I know all of it by heart. Some people rewrite their notes from memory, #blurting. I’ve tried it before, but for me it just takes too long and I start to get impatient so I recite it instead. If writing helps you remember, you might want to try blurting instead of reciting, everyone has a different way of studying. I do this “heavy memorising” most probably a few days before a test, depending on the length of the chapter and how difficult I find it.
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