Having a Biology or Chemistry class in your schedule usually creates panic. Whether you are a science-major, or just fulfilling a gen-ed requirement, it can be a challenge to find the time to complete homework, finalize lab-work, go to class, get to those labs each week, and still keep an A in the class. After a lot of mistakes, I discovered 10 tips that I wish I had known in order for me to get the grades I wanted.

1. Take good notes.

Having an assortment of colored pens and highlighters to make your notes more eye-appealing helps motivate you to study. Drawing pictures, diagrams, and charts in different colors also causes you to memorize the picture much easier, as it is separated into different parts based on color. I have found that if I draw a chart in a few different colors, I can picture this chart on the exam. I have found that writing notes in composition notebooks makes it much easier to keep track of notes. If I use different composition notebooks for my science classes, I will have a condensed, well-organized notebook to keep track of. Another method I have found useful was having a binder. I separated the binder into three sections: notes, homework, and lab. I then could simply add more loose-leaf paper when I was out of room for notes, or hole-punch lab hand-outs, tests, and homework sheets that were printed off. Lastly, in classes that don’t have cumulative tests, I wrote “Test” at the end of that section of notes, so when I was studying for the next test, I didn’t accidently focus on topics that I was already tested on.

2. Meet with your lab instructor once a week.

I did a grade calculation halfway into the semester, and was terrified to find that I was 3% from a “D” in my Chemistry Lab! I frantically checked the syllabus, and found that if I didn’t receive a BC or higher in the lab, I wouldn’t pass the class either. I emailed my lab instructor, and she suggested that I meet with her before lab, to go over my pre-lab assignments as well as check through my lab assignments to make sure I was doing everything correctly. It turns out, I tried a lot harder on my lab assignments, just because I knew I would be there when she first looked them over! She also hinted at problems that were completely wrong. Preparing questions ahead of time, as well as spending a little more time on the problems instead of procrastinating, caused me to do a lot better altogether; my lab points went from “F’s” to “A’s”, and I ended up getting an AB overall in lab.

3. Meet with your professor after lecture.

It always confused me at first when I saw people walk up to the front of the room after every single class. However, after receiving a very hard assignment that I just couldn’t figure out, I went up after class to ask questions about homework. I found that my classmates were doing this very same thing, as well as asking for clarification on what my professor in lecture. They even asked for additional information or study tips. In some cases, she gave the right answer, and explained how to do the problem! The professors also have office-hours, in which they go over things one-on-one with their students. However, many people in our class didn’t have time in their schedules for this. Many professors are very understanding of this, and will be happy to meet at other, more convenient times. It made me realize that it is OKAY not to understand everything right away. It may take several times of running through information to understand it.

4. Do all of the assignments, even the optional ones.

Procrastination is one of the worst habits to have in college. If you make sure to have your homework done early, you have the opportunity to ask questions if needed. Many teachers have a specific time that homework must be submitted by. In my situation, my professor had an online-quiz that we had to type our assignments into, and it was due at 11:59 on Monday night. This gave students a chance to do the homework over the weekend, and if they had questions, they could ask her in class. I also found this convenient because I could ask the people that sat around me what they got for answers, just to make sure I didn’t lose any points. If your homework isn’t done by this time, then you are probably not going to get free answers from your classmates, as this is cheating. You also probably won’t get the opportunity to ask your professor questions. However, if it gets to be a close call, and you can’t figure out a homework problem, remember that a lot of homework assignments are similar to other problems posted somewhere online. Just Google them! Even if it’s not a word-for-word problem, most problems posted online have a description on how the person who posted it solved it. Work through the online problem, and use the strategy posted to solve the other homework assignment.

5. Read the textbook chapters BEFORE class.

Although it takes a lot of extra time, read through the chapters that will be taught in lecture just to get a general knowledge of the information. By taking short notes—just the main ideas and formulas–you already have a foundation on what will be taught next class period; hearing it twice will cause you to remember it better, and most times, concepts that the textbook didn’t explain very well will be cleared up, or another way to solve a problem will be introduced. In classes like biology that rely majorly on memorizing terms, already having a general idea of the terms ahead of time will help you get more in-depth knowledge of them. I found that it was useful to know the definitions for bio ahead of time, because my professor tended to ask us who knew the definitions, and by answering him, I stood out as an outstanding student. You might need to be on a professor’s good side at one point or another in the semester, just in case you miss a class or are late for some reason.

6. Sign up for the early lab, not the night one.

Although it might terrify you to have a lab at 7:45am on Friday, I found it was a lot better to have a morning lab, than be stuck in school until 8:00 at night. The first thing to remember about lab is that the instructor is more helpful in the mornings. It’s a fresh day; they aren’t tired, they haven’t had and an annoying student hasn’t tried to blow up the lab yet! Unless you are the student who accidently makes a bomb in chemistry, your professor will be a lot more cheerful in their first lab of the day. Yes, you may not be fully awake, but professors are more understanding if you are a little tardy for early classes. I always looked forward to getting done with lab, because it was over with, and I didn’t have to dread going to lab later on in the day. Even for those who enjoy going to their science labs, it’s better to fill up your mornings with classes, because it frees up your afternoon to work, volunteer, and have fun. One thing that your advisors don’t tell you is the people with earlier classes on Fridays can leave to go home/visit friends/party earlier as well. It’s hard to go home to visit family if every ride-share driver leaves at 3:00pm and your lab ends at 8.

7. Set up a study group.

Try to find at least two other people from your class to join you in a study group. A group of three people will have a good foundation on each topic. Some people are better at things other people have problems with, and hearing someone else, other than a professor, explain a method may make you learn something much faster. There is no required time to meet--Meet once a week, weekends, after class, or just before tests. Either way, you can all help each other to figure out the necessary knowledge for the tests and quizzes that make up a large majority of your grade!

8. Watch YouTube Videos about confusion subjects.

When there were large concepts to memorize, such as the Fern Life Cycle, I found it extremely helpful to watch youtube videos on different topics to help memorize them in a fun, engaging way. I found songs that people wrote and recorded about science topics, and listened to them repeatedly to memorize different topics (fern life cycle, the binomial system of nomenclature, etc). I even recorded them on my phone and listened to them on the way to class! If this isn’t your style, however, there are instructional videos on almost every science topic out there! Crash course videos are very popular, and good for general review before classes. However, these videos don’t really teach individualized topics in much detail, and definitely shouldn’t substitute other study strategies. An alternate way to learn by watching videos that I have found very helpful in many cases is the Khan Academy. Those who contribute to videos usually go into detail about different topics. I specifically used them for Chemistry, but they actually have videos for most subjects taught in high school and college classes. A tip that I was delighted to discover is that you can watch videos in 1.5x or 2x the normal speed to get through them faster! A 12-minute video in which the narrator drones on about boring topics will suddenly be 6 minutes, and will go at a quicker pace.

https://www.youtube.com/

9. Explain concepts to people who aren't in the class.

Sometimes, it is hard to memorize a topic completely, but a lot of the test questions will be on this subject. I find that learning a topic to teach is very effective, because instead of doing it to pass a test, you are learning to teach others. I did this a lot with my boyfriend when he came to visit me during college. We would stay up for hours at night talking, and I would try to explain different science topics to him. If I couldn’t remember something exactly, I looked it up and found the missing piece in my information. Because I tend to remember conversations very clearly, this method helps me to memorize very detailed information.

10. Type your notes into Quizlet or find one that has already been made.

Although it might be a little distracting to study using an internet-based tool, I have found that typing my notes into Quizlet and studying it every few hours has really helped with vocab memorization. No matter where you are at, as long as you have access to your phone, you can go through these online flash cards. You can even copy and paste from a PowerPoint that was posted online by teachers. To make things even easier, someone might have already made a Quizlet containing similar/exact vocab as you are trying to learn. I copied and pasted all of my bio notes into a Quizlet, and then studied at work when I had free time! I then got together with three other girls from my class and we studied all of my bio quizlets together before the final. We also found someone else’s bio Quizlet and made it into a game. Whoever guessed the right answer first got a point, and it was a great review for the final!

https://quizlet.com/

Whichever way you decide to approach your science classes, remember to have a positive attitude, and always give yourself enough time to study! I kept in mind that after I finished my studying, and got an A on a test or full points on lab, I would NEVER regret studying longer.