<p>Hey, I am a sophomore and up until now I've been doing pretty well in school:
-Scholars Academy (a highly selective "school-within-a-school"; required to take 5 Advanced Placement courses to graduate)
-3.5 un-weighted GPA
-Top 5% ranking
-Freshmen Leadership Council (award for "Outstanding Freshmen Class Service")
-Executive Council (sophomore class officer)
-Taking a rigorous course-load this year: Biology 1 Honors, Geometry
Honors, English 2 Honors, AP European History, French 3 Honors, Visions of
the Future Seminar (Honors), Health (elective), and Art 1 (elective)
This year, however, I have been desperately struggling to maintain a "B" in Biology 1 Honors and, as of now, my report card grade is completely in the air as to whether it is a "B-" or "C+" (report cards are issued next week). My question to you guys is how much will this look on applications and affect my overall chances of getting into the more highly selective colleges and universities (Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, etc.)? For those of you who seem to do well in Biology, how do you study? My notes are very detailed and I study for about 2 hours for each test but to no avail. Also, our tests are more along the lines of applying concepts than just giving basic information.</p>
<p>I don't know about you, but my school only reports the final year grade on our transcripts.</p>
<p>And for bio, try consulting a higher level resource - either an AP test prep book or Campbell's Biology college textbook - to see how concepts are applied to other areas of biology. That helped me a lot in bio honors.</p>
<p>About biology: I took GT Bio last year. It might've been the teacher, but I did not study at ALL. I ended up with an A every quarter, but a B on the final..grr. </p>
<p>Anyway, pay attention in class. Stop and actually listen. Don't be trying to take notes and end up not absorbing the material. It's important that you listen, not just hear. Do not stress out yourself too much. Take a break or something while studying, study with friends, anything to make the experience more positive, I suppose. Have some confidence.</p>
<p>Blazer, you have almost exactly the same schedule as me! I have Bio Honors, English Honors, Spanish Accellerated, Geometry Honors, AP European History, Business class, and gifted class.</p>
<p>Anyways, I have the best solution for you and biology. I thought myself that I was going to have a hard time in Bio, but really, its not even that hard. </p>
<p>What you do is this. Do your reading and book notes ON THE WEEKEND. Just do it all, the whole chapter. Take some notes, you notes shouldn't be more then one full front and back page for each section. </p>
<p>Then, when your in class, you dont have to take notes. Just listen, now you are reviewing, which is great. If you hear something that you didn't take in your notes, then add it, and continue to listen, and ask questions, and RECITE what you read by answering questions. </p>
<p>When your at home, now you hardly have any Bio work to do at all (since you did your reading and homework on the weekend). All you have to do is quickly review your biology notes for 10 minutes and your all set. When the test comes, spend the day or two before, for like 20 minutes, take some practice questions from the back of the chapter, review the notes, and thats it. No more cramming before the test. After all that reviewing in class, at home, everything should be in your long term memory. </p>
<p>Hope that helps. Let us know what works for you! :)</p>