Microbiology, Help!!!!

hey babyphat....I loved Micro! Yes, it's hard and there is a lot of info, but I found it soooo interesting. Trust me, you'll never be the same again after you finish this class....you'll look at hand washing/bacteria in a whole new light :)

We had to do a paper on an unknown and these websites helped me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bacteria

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap21.html

http://medic.med.uth.tmc.edu/path/00001458.htm

yea it was hard. but as long as you study after each class you will be fine. my professor was so mean that she discouraged student from wanting to be a health profession. One girl told me that the prof told her to change her major. anyway it was tough. i stressed out. form study group. if you dont understand something stay after class and ask your prof. for more explanation. where in lecture are you now?? cuz when you get to the later lectures for example like the different type of bacteria and how to treat it etc. make a CHART. that will help big time. anyway if you need help understanding i might be able to help you. the class can be interesting only if you dedicate yourself to passing and studying in it. If i had taken the advice i just told you from the begining i would have gotten a B instead i ended with a C, i think i was only 5 points away from a B. i was happy that i passed it but sad that it brought my gpa down a lil. my screen name is Krazy4yankees2 and sweetnessa4life. dont be afraid to IM me. YOU CAN DO IT. DONT LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT YOU CAN'T. peace

You might consider the book Microbiology Made Incredibly Easy.

The main thing is to study a little daily. Make flashcards and review them frequently. This will only take a few minutes each time and is well worth it. Explain what you're studying to someone. This is a very effective way of determining whether or not you really understand. Sometimes you don't realize that you haven't mastered a concept until you try to verbalize it. Finally, I downloaded images of the various microbes and printed them out along with information such as vector, disease process, etc. This was an easy way to study for lab practicals a little each day. I just kept all of the sheets together so I could flip through them easily.

Yes, it's a hard course, but I found it interesting, too. I had a nice instructor who couldn't teach. He read out of the book for lecture. I basically had to teach it to myself -- and managed to make an A in lecture and lab.

Does your text have a support website with notes and quizzes? If not, you might find the info you're studying at websites for other micro texts. I also used Wikipedia and Google alot. Keeping up as you go is great advice. Good luck!

yO! Whether or not you will fare well in this class depends on your motivation for taking this class, your interest in the actual subject itself, and your ability to retain massive amounts of information.

I took the upper division class at UCI over a 5 week summer session period (without a lab though so it was purely lecture) without the massive amount of pre-reqs such as biochem and other bio classes. On top of that, I graduated as an Econ major there and had another class on top of that. I can only say that it was due to my interest in the subject that I was able to somehow ace the class.

I highly reccommend visiting your professor atleast once a week during your own privately scheduled office hours. If you go during reg. office hours, you will have to deal with a million other A-hungry scavenger nerds.

Here is a website the powerpoint slides from my class:

http://eee.uci.edu/06y/05245

goodluck with that!

p.s. I loved micro! After taking it, I was able to understand so much more while watching the FOX show, "House"! I love it!

p.p.s. Your classmates are your competition.

I found microbiology fascinating. It was hard but I was so interested in what I was learning that it made it bearable.

What made me struggle the most was unknowns. As you do your labs pay attention to the lab tests your are doing and what organism you are testing for. Become familiar with what a positive/negative result looks like.

I went online and googled all the lab tests and eventually stumbled onto a site that had all the lab tests we were doing and color pictures of positive and negative results. I printed these (in color) so I could take them with me and study them on the go. It trained my eye to recognize what I was looking at and what possible organsim I had. When the time came for my unknown I flew through it.

I also joined a yahoo group for microbiology. The group moderator had a chart of unknowns on the web site with the organisms on the side, and what test to use to find them across the top. Again, this was a big help when it came time to do unknowns.

Anyway, I feel those two things are what got me through.

Here's the website we used for my class, it's a course outline but if you click on the links it will pull up photos of everything we did in lab. The practice tests are good for review:

http://www.pbcc.edu/faculty/johnsonp/microlab/schedule.pdf

Here's another site that has charts with photos, very helpful when studying for the lab practicals and figuring out unknowns!

http://www.geocities.com/moopic/microhelp.html

Hopefully that helps a little...if your teacher isn't that great, all I can say is study, study, study!

Also...a helpful hint...when you take notes in this class, use a purple and a red pen. This way you can actually write bacteria names and know if it is gram + or - as you read through your notes. This was a huge help for me because I'm a very visual learner.

I did the same thing-Loved Micro!!! Sure it is hard, but it really does change how you look at things! Best of luck!!!!