<p>I'm in Bio 1A/L next semester, does anyone have any tips in succeeding in these classes?</p>
<p>I hear that Bio 1AL is one of the harder classes at Berkeley (for the amount of units it's worth), what do students who get A's actually do that B students don't?</p>
<p>Good GSI's? bad GSI's? how's the Lab? are exams hard for 1A or 1AL?</p>
<p>anything would be helpful.</p>
<p>Helen’s a great GSI.</p>
<p>Depends on the professor but most of the time memorize everything. The reason why people get Bs in Bio 1AL instead of As is because people quickly realize that the extra amount of time is not worth the extra GPA from B to A given that it is only 2 units. If you had a limited amount of time wouldn’t you rather focus on a 4 or 3 unit class that doesn’t require much effort and has more GPA weight or kill yourself to get an A in a 2 unit class.</p>
<p>Bio 1AL:</p>
<p>-Get into a smart lab section = #1 Tip. The curve is the best. I honestly did not deserve the A- I got, I probably would have gotten a flat B if I had been in any of 15 or so other discussion sections.
-Keep up every week. The quizzes are very important to do well on if you happen to land in a mediocre lab section.
-Labs are whatevers, some are fun but most are boring and time-consuming. </p>
<p>Bio 1A:</p>
<p>-It’s a lot easier to do well in this than it is to do well in 1AL.
-I guess the best tip would be to just focus on what the Professors lecture on, you don’t really have to use the book. Malkin and Fischer = terrific professors, Forte = terrible professor.</p>
<p>I agree with calbear</p>
<p>I wouldn’t even have minded memorizing a lot if it was for something I thought would be useful. The second part of the class was full of memorizing things like species/class/order names for fish and insects and recognizing body parts of worms and clams??</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because I’m a biochem major, but who in the class would really benefit from any of this?</p>
<p>a prospective worm scientist, that’s who.</p>
<p>This is what worked for me (I got A’s in both classes):</p>
<p>Bio 1AL:</p>
<p>(1) Get into a Friday lab section. THIS IS CRUCIAL. Friday lab sections tend to do well on the first lab exam, so your grade gets bumped up in the end.
(2) Get a good GSI. If not, ask a friend who has Helen or Christian to email you their quizzes/power points/etc.
(3) Start studying for each lab BEFORE the Monday lab lecture. Do not leave studying to the night before. It will be overwhelming.</p>
<p>Remember, this is a tough class, but it actually gets quite a lot of A’s –> about 30%. Lecture gives out only 20%, however, so work hard in lab but don’t neglect lecture!</p>
<hr>
<p>Bio 1A:</p>
<p>(1) GO TO LECTURE!!!
(2) Take really good notes during lecture. If you are feeling sleepy that day, re-watch the lecture (via webcast) within 2-3 days of the actual lecture and take down anything you missed before. You should write down every (important) point that the prof makes.
(3) If you do (1) and (2), you will not have to watch webcasts to study for the midterm. In fact this will be a waste of your time. Just review your notes over and over. It is best if you spend a little time each day (15-30 min) doing that so you don’t have to cram for the test.</p>
<p>I don’t believe it’s getting into a Friday lab that’s important. It’s the fact that Helen teaches on Thursday and Friday and we all know what the rumor is…</p>
<p>I dunno, the semester I took it, all the Friday sections did well. My (Friday) section was #4 even though it was my GSI’s first time teaching, and he really hated it, and he didn’t seem to know what he got himself into. Needless to say, he never GSIed again. </p>
<p>But also I think having section on Friday is good because it gives you a lot more time to study. Think about how miserable the Tuesday morning kids always were…</p>
<p>I was a Tuesday morning kid it was absolutely terrible. Lab lectures Monday night were useless and no one knew what to expect for the quizzes… My lab section was second to bottom and our class average was curved to a C+ while other class averages were A-s. </p>
<p>Stupid stupid completely unfair system.</p>
<p>tues afternoon lab-our avgs sucked too and not enough time to read the lab manual after lab lec in time for lab :(</p>
<p>thanks guys, really helpful stuff here. </p>
<p>anyone else want to comment on bio 1a/l?</p>