Micro advice???

sddlnscp · May 31, 2006

Hey everybody, I took Micro & A&P II together last semester. Although it was a ton of work, it was also a lot of fun! Don't be scared of Micro . . . I was terrified of it because of all the horror stories I had heard. Well, it turned out to be one of my favorite classes - I loved it! I found out that if I was not so heart-set on being a nurse, I would love to be a Microbiologist! Take a deep breath and go in with a positive attitude - do the work (class and labs) and enjoy it. Micro seems underestimated, it is very important. Try not to be too scared - enjoy! :)

Tami707 · May 31, 2006

HI BPO93,

I took Micro last summer. It was 5 hours everyday (mon-Thrus), 3 hour lab, 2 hour lecture, with a two hour break between them. I spent the time between lab and lecture studying (and eating dinner), as well as using every moment when I was not in class, also studying. My daughter had swim lessons, and I would take my book along to pre-read the chapter, then afterwards we would go to the library, where I would do my homework - my family spent A LOT of time at the library last summer!

My advice would be to structure your time so that you are spending adequate amounts in both classes. I just finished terminology this semester and it was more work than I had anticipated. If your book comes with a CD, use it. Mine had exercises and pronunciations on it. If you find that you can not spend enough time studying for both, drop the terminology class and take it at a later date. But really structure your time and STICK TO IT. If you have family, make sure that they know your schedule, (so that they can see the light at the end of the tunnel) as well as scheduling in special family time in as well. SUmmer classes can be a challenge, especially if you take more than one, but are definately "do-able" if you plan.

marilynmom, LPN, NP · May 31, 2006

Micro was my all time favorite class! It is SO interesting and I had already decided that if I didn't get accepted into nursing school (I did though!) I was going to major in Microbiology.

I say relax and enjoy it! Keep up with your reading. One of the things I found most helpful was either finding pictures online of organisms or drawing good pitures of them so you can identify them. I was able to ACE my lab practicles while other were flunking them because of that.

For me what worked best (I made A's on all my tests) was really understainding how certain things worked (lac operon model, Krebs Cycle, etc), I didn't memorize them, but I learned how they worked---I could picture the cycles in my head. Most of the tesxtbooks have a website you can go to for practice tests, diagrams, videos, etc. I did use all that too.

Index cards of course are great too, I can't live without that.

Study hard and have fun with it!!