Profs ever so often crack these humourless jokes, and they hear is laughter and think, "Oh, that went well ."

They're so oblivious to the fact that most of the class is laughing at them, not with them. I feel sorry for them, I really do.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Lol, I'm sure you were a good student and still are in biology, but all I can honestly say is just wait, you'll see.

I mean, I try to understand, and for this cell bio midterm I knew all the pathways by just playing them out in my head (i.e., instead of using words I just played out an animation of everything that happens in a pathway when I close my eyes).

And it doesn't help, AT ALL, because they ask you the MOST ridiculous questions to the point where it's impossible to actually figure anything about.

For example, from the cell bio midterm, there was a question like "If there is an NRF mutation, which class of mutants does it fall under?"
Class A, B, C, D or E?

That's it. There's no chance of "figuring it out" you just know it or you don't. And considering we spent about 20 seconds in 5 weeks of material talking about NRF1, chances are you won't know it.

And there was a crapload of questions like that.

I don't mean any offense, because I was just like you, but biology is just stupid until you get to like 4th year. My only advice is to not try and understand, because they're going to take pictures/questions straight from your slides and if you understand it a different way than they teach it (even if yours is valid) you're going to get it wrong.

E.g., I did the pathways in my head, but they just copied pics off the slides and pointed to shit and asked what it was....how the hell do I know? That random blob on that one pic is irrelevant to me, but apparently testable.

Precisely why I switched out of a biology-related program. 1A03 was pretty miserable, and when I realised that the memorisation required for 1A03 paled in comparison with cell bio...

EDIT: Human evolution has no thinking? really? I thought the opposite - that one you can get away with just knowing the general trends and ideas and sort of apply it to questions they ask. Maybe it's your professor.

Again, agreed. Out of all the 1st-year biology material, I found that evolution in general (human evolution included) required little to no memory-work.

Depends on what the course is. If it is bio I know I'd have no issue with it because I would find the subject matter interesting. I had one memorization course. Anthro 1a03...lordy, just because it's a 'bird course' doesn't mean it's very interesting (well it may be interesting for some people but to be quite honest I got sick of Cultural Anthro pretty quick). Generally speaking if I don't find it interesting, I won't find the course very easy to get through either. Again, not that it is particularly challenging, it's just I find it dull and, I hate to say, a waste of time.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Personally, I'd rather have a course with memorization and some basic understanding than something with both application and whatnot.

I hope you're joking.

Originally Posted by macsci

I hope you're joking.

Lol, I don't agree with her but I can understand why. When you take courses like organic chem you'll understand - 5 years of practice exams, tutorials, midterms and assignments don't prepare you. In other words, no matter how much you practice it's never guaranteed you'll get everything right. When in a situation like that you just wish you could memorize and guarantee yourself a good mark.

EDIT: Not sure if you're first year or second...if you've already taken orgo, then you should understand...and if you haven't yet, then my point stands.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Lol, I don't agree with her but I can understand why. When you take courses like organic chem you'll understand - 5 years of practice exams, tutorials, midterms and assignments don't prepare you. In other words, no matter how much you practice it's never guaranteed you'll get everything right. When in a situation like that you just wish you could memorize and guarantee yourself a good mark.

EDIT: Not sure if you're first year or second...if you've already taken orgo, then you should understand...and if you haven't yet, then my point stands.

I actually took both orgos last year and did really well. Once you know the mechanisms and ideas behind reactions, you can pretty much solve any orgo problem (pretty much, but no guarantee). It's all about putting puzzle pieces together.

On the other hand, you can't do this at all with pure memorization courses. In some situations, it boils down to you either know it or you don't, there is no reasoning involved. Study strategy then becomes "here are the answers, memorize them". It's brainless and boring. Sure, memorizing is sometimes part of understanding but knowing names and dates of insignificant things are meaningless in a course designed to introduce a broad range of topics.

In fact, while you study for exams of this sorts, it's not like you skip over names and dates. You study them anyway, but they get placed at the back of the line in your priority list. They are not important and you know better not to spend a lot of time on them.

If you were working in the area specifically, say finishing up your PhD, then it's a different story as you are required to be an expert on the literature and know everything related to your thesis inside out.

Originally Posted by nila*

I like memorization courses, they are like a break from the usual stuff. Its nice to be able to just read things over and over until it sticks rather than having to do math questions over and over and pray that what you get on the test resembles the questions you've done for practice.

Haha, glad I am not the only one here that thinks that way!

Originally Posted by tamititus

Depends on what the course is. If it is bio I know I'd have no issue with it because I would find the subject matter interesting. I had one memorization course. Anthro 1a03...lordy, just because it's a 'bird course' doesn't mean it's very interesting (well it may be interesting for some people but to be quite honest I got sick of Cultural Anthro pretty quick). Generally speaking if I don't find it interesting, I won't find the course very easy to get through either. Again, not that it is particularly challenging, it's just I find it dull and, I hate to say, a waste of time.

^ This is what happens when you take a bird course. lol

^ You have no idea how quickly I learned that. xD Oooh man.

Profs ever so often crack these humourless jokes, and they hear is laughter and think, "Oh, that went well ."

They're so oblivious to the fact that most of the class is laughing at them, not with them. I feel sorry for them, I really do.

What lol ? I've always been laughing with the prof lol, dunno what you been doing ? Plus even if so I don't think the profs care at all.

CELL BIO BACKFIRE!

bad test was bad

I have a few memorization courses in Geography and they can get frustrating. I find it easier to remember things that I actually have to learn and understand. For my last Geog test, I had a full page of percentages, dates and names to memorize. It makes studying feel like much longer than it actually is.

Originally Posted by macsci

I actually took both orgos last year and did really well. Once you know the mechanisms and ideas behind reactions, you can pretty much solve any orgo problem (pretty much, but no guarantee). It's all about putting puzzle pieces together.

On the other hand, you can't do this at all with pure memorization courses. In some situations, it boils down to you either know it or you don't, there is no reasoning involved. Study strategy then becomes "here are the answers, memorize them". It's brainless and boring. Sure, memorizing is sometimes part of understanding but knowing names and dates of insignificant things are meaningless in a course designed to introduce a broad range of topics.

In fact, while you study for exams of this sorts, it's not like you skip over names and dates. You study them anyway, but they get placed at the back of the line in your priority list. They are not important and you know better not to spend a lot of time on them.

If you were working in the area specifically, say finishing up your PhD, then it's a different story as you are required to be an expert on the literature and know everything related to your thesis inside out.

Well, like I said, I agree with you. Organic chemistry is my favourite subject.

I think it's more that the amount of time you put into biology related courses always is correlated to your mark (i.e., more studying, higher mark, thus if you don't do well it's usually because you didn't study enough). Compare that to something like orgo where you can study a shitload and still do poorly.