OH.. Micro.. :-(

I took micro semester before last, and I made a B because it was a bit difficult. I bought a digital voice recorder at fry's for around $60, and recorded every class. I also took my digital camera to labs, and took pictures of different things to download on my computer. My instructor did NOT give the best lectures for note taking so I found the voice recorder was a must. I also went to walmart and bought a ton of 3x5 index cards, a hole punch, and a pack of metal rings (all very cheap). I wrote my notes on the index cards, hole punched them, and attached them to the rings, and then carried them everywhere. I do this for all my science classes, and find it really helpful. Hope this helps.

Been there before, don't you just hate that?!

Next time I am flustered, I plan on taking several long deep breathes before reading the first question, and reminding myself that now is test taking time, I can be upset later.

JdN,

It can and does get better. Take it from someone who has "been there, done that!" I took Micro along with A&P II and Psych, and failed the first 4 tests. I was so upset and looking at dropping. I too am an A/B student, and had never failed a test, much less 4 of them. I wanted to stay in there as long as I could so I could get as much info as possible before taking it again, but when I went to talk to the instructor about dropping, she told me to NOT drop her class, that I was an excellent student and I WOULD get it, the info would finally click! She sat me down and went over how she wanted me to study, and the very next test, I made a 97 on it! The last test I made a 93 and finished the class with an 87 average!! So while a failing grade is miserable for a good student, it isn't the end of the world!!

Like coolpeach posted above, get some index cards and write your notes on there. I had a stack of cards for each test that was about 2-3 inches thick! There is just so much to learn in micro! But, I put 1 organism on each card with the answer on the back, or 1 thing about each disease, and broke it up that way, and it really helped. I never added more than 1 fact about something on a card, because that is how I was studying before, and obviously, there was too much info at a time to learn on 1 card and I wasn't getting it. BTW, I never did get the Krebs cycle!!! Haha!!

Good luck and don't give up! Just change the way that you study for this particular class.