<p>On General BIO I (mostly cellular stuffs and photosynthesis & cellular respiration), I did well and received A. On General BIO II (anatomy, physiology, taxonomy, and ecology), I am not doing well at all. I am finished with three major exams, leaving the final. The scores of those exams are as follow: B (lowest B possible), A (lowest A possible), C (two points off from B). I was just upset that I ended up with C because I studied hard.</p>
<p>Anyway, I got over that fact but I really want to do well on final. I figured that with my lab, if I do well on final, I'll be able to pull it off to a decent grade. Anyway, my question is this: how can you really ace these Campbell questions? We used Biology 8th edition by Campbell and our professors pick questions from Test Bank.</p>
<p>Personally, I HATE that because those questions are very specific, and most of things we see are not even discussed. My professor, in fact, just rambles on definitions and about his personal life. I learned absolutely NOTHING from him and I went to his office TWICE to ask for help. And here's the worst part: on BIO I, we had 90 minutes for 80 questions. Now, on BIO II, we had 80 minutes for 100 questions. WHAT THE HECK!</p>
<p>Any idea? I really want to do well and I figure I'd ask here because I really hate that class now. Not because I don't do well (that happens) but with all the work I'm putting in, I'm not sure I'm really "learning" anything.</p>
<p>Getting a B in Bio isn’t going to kill you. Stay focused, and finish strong. If you are fortunate enough to get into Med school there will be classes you really won’t like there either and they will be far more in depth and delivered over a far shorter time frame. Sadly too many professors test to see what you don’t know rather than to see if you have a true conceptual understanding of the process and material. That won’t change in med school either. It’s just the price you have to pay to become a physician.</p>
<p>my teacher uses campbell’s questions in my AP Bio class…those are ridiculously difficult and specific, i’m glad i’m not the only who feels this way…all you can do is read the student guide and the textbook if you can…the chapters are outlined in course-notes.org…although the outlines are also really long and specific…out of curiosity, what college do you go to?</p>
<p>I’m HOPING for B.
It’s just that I’m unsatisfied with the way they teach the course. Even the professors admitted that intro courses are nothing like the upper level courses, and some upperclassmen said that these intro courses are harder than upper level courses.
I’m just trying to do bio as much as I can but I’ll probably stop doing this soon so I can work on the chem. This is why I dislike bio. It’s just time consuming and pain in the butt (for intro that is).</p>
<p>Yeah, unfortunately that’s the way most intro bio classes seem to be (from anecdotal evidence). All of my intro bio exams were regurgitation; depending on the professor, the questions were either really specific or more general. You’ll just have to trudge through it. Nearly all of the higher level bio classes I’ve taken have been much more conceptual and required an understanding of the material, not just rote memorization.</p>
<p>Some premeds do feel that the intro bio is boring. A premed once commented that the intro bio mid-term is like a “word vommitting” contest during the short exam period – This negative comment came from a student who did very well later on in his other bio courses.</p>
<p>I think this is likely caused by the very large class and the uneven quality of TAs. Some students complain that unless you put down the exact word that happens to be used by the author of the textbook, some TA will likely mark it as incorrect. This is because some overworked TAs may not be willing to go extra miles to decipher whether your answer is semantically the same as that in the textbook if you use a different word.</p>
<p>It is rumored that one professor even delegates the test writing task to a TA. Unfortunately, many students have troubles in understanding the question itself. But the professor just does not care.</p>
<p>Welcome to the unpleasant world of premed! (This may be the case before you get through the first few introductory courses. – But for the non-sciece-major premed, these maybe-not-be-so-pleasant introductory courses could be the only premed courses they may ever take, maybe plus one or two additional bios.)</p>
<p>@Madamebovary: did you AP out of entry level bio classes? Was it difficult going straight into higher level classes, and do medical schools mind students using their AP credit for these classes?</p>
<p>As long as you have one year of bio with lab (doesn’t matter if its intro or upper, med schools will take it). However you cant just use AP bio as a supplement to the one year of bio. Although i had the AP Bio credit, i still went back and retook intro bio I, but in retrospect, it was so boring. I think definitely the students who have taken AP Bio will have a much easier time. But yea i avoided intro BIO II cause i was never good in ecology, plants and evolution back in hs.</p>
<p>I wish we could have hard questions on our AP tests. THe AP is such a joke.</p>
<p>If you want good practice questions, I challenge you to test your test-taking skills and understanding by taking practice International Biology Olympiad questions. You will not only build your Multiple choice test-taking skills, but also understand where you are not 100% solid in your material (and trust me, those IBO questions will truly show you how much you haven’t mastered the material yet).</p>
<p>I at least wish it’s a written exam where you can fill in the answers. During the exams, I can’t even ask questions because I’ll run out of time.</p>
<p>Introductory Biology is pretty dumb in everywhere I guess. I don’t know… I basically want to say screw it because I just don’t like it. It’s not grades that bother me. I JUST DON’T LIKE THE WAY THEY RUN THE SYSTEM. </p>
Well said. Even if there is little education value (but there is at least some education value in it in this case), the experience to deal with it in a constructive way can help build characters.</p>
<p>I know this is an old thread but I wanted to revive it to thank everyone for helping me. My professor emailed me with my course grade. I ended with A-. Thanks everyone! :)</p>