Study tips for Microbiology

[K nurse-one-day]

I'm struggling with Microbiology right now. This is the last class I need for the nursing program. At this time a C is the direction I'm headed in but it will not be enough for the RN program. If I do well on everything else, I can still make a B. For the last test, I read all the chapters and went back and reread a couple of them. We only have 100 mins to take a 55 question test and we test on 5 chapters every time. It's so much to remember. When I see a question, I remember reading about it but it just starts to mix in with everything else. Its clear that all this boring reading isn't doing a thing for me. I would appreciate any study tips or advice anyone can give me. Thanks!

[Markeevustimothy]

Try to determine from where the test questions are derived. That is always the first step. Some teachers only test on things that are covered in class (which is the way my science courses where) and others test on all the assigned material (which is the way my nursing classes are). If it is exclusively or primarily from the lecture, record it with a digital or tape recorder. Even a laptop could probably record a lecture with decent quality. If it is from the book it'll probably be harder. I would just study the keyterms. Also drawing pictures from my bio books and labeling things helped me, as well as forcing myself to write down something after i've just read it without looking at what it is, that way I know I am retaining that information in my short-term memory, which is the first step in saving it into my long-term memory. Good luck

[K nurse-one-day]

Thanks so much for your help. I forgot to mention that its a hybrid class, and there isn't a lecture. I have to teach myself everything. The tests are online, everything is out of the book and we have no clue what he's going to test on. It could be anything. Its very hard!

[choc0late]

What book are you using? My book came with an online resource called mymicroplace or something like that (it was last year, sorry) but it had downloadable MP3 lecture's which were great. For the most part stick with the key points in the beginning chapter of the book, the objectives. Those are usually always the basics that every teacher needs to teach. Another thing is to really know what the question is asking you,that way you can weed out a couple answers, then go with your gut. Best of luck to you

[Chris99mu]

I'm a very visual learner. So if there is something I know will probably have multiple test questions I will memorize a chart or a mnemonic that I devised in my head, and then as SOON as we get our tests, I will flip my test over and write out whatever it was I wanted to remember. Then, when I come to a question pertaining to what I memorized, I don't get bogged down with superfulous words or distractor answers meant to confuse.

I will also do this when I see a key word in a question. Instead of reading the question all the way thru, I will IMMEDIATELY write down everything I remember about that key word or topic, THEN I will read the question and try to answer it based on the information I have remembered and written down on my test.

Also, my professor just LOVES to do negative questions: "Which of the following is NOT...." "All of the below are part of the phyllum Platyhelminthe EXCEPT...." So based on my notes, I will try and predict what kinds of negative questions he will throw at us. It's almost too easy, he uses so many of them!

GL! I know how you feel - I have a test on 4 micro chapters, oh in about 10 hours! Eeeeek!

[Chris99mu]

Oh and I'm ridiculous about word associations for memorization. Examples:

For instance, my test tomorrow covers fungi, among a billion other things.

*I'm having trouble remembering which fungi are asexual and which are sexual (like I care!!!) But Ananmorphs are Asexual, and Zygomycota are Sexual (sort of an alliteration)

*2 types of hyphae are aerially which grow up and vegetative which grow out, like wide expanses of land crops.

*Ascomycota sounds like 'ascots' which are what snooty people wear (imho and deranged brain), and snooty people eat truffles, which are a type of ascomycota.

See, silly dumb things like that can have you whizzing thru a test like a pro!

[cicatrixx15]

If you have to do self teaching, it's very useful to make an out line as you read with the key points. Then the second time you read you can go over your outline simultaneously. It helps to organize information in this fashion. That way when you read a question, you can remember where in was in your outline visually and know what's around it. That's how I do it anyway. Hope this helps!