Biol/MB&B 182: Principles of Biology

Advice to you from previous students

These are unedited, unfiltered responses given in response to the following question on Exam 2 in an earlier year:
29. (1 pts) What single piece of advice would you give to a student taking Biology/MB&B 182 from Professor Devoto in a future year?

Note: this was before the Echo360 recordings of the lectures; I created podcasts of lectures for students to review.

• Review powerpoint lectures daily and keep pace w/the rdg.
• Attend the lectures (don’t skip class)
• To do the readings before and after the class lecture.
• To do well on the exams, first go over the material and understand the basics.  The most important part, however, is working with a study group - challenge each other, help each other to apply the concepts rather than to simply memorize the material.
• Make sure you keep up with the reading in the textbook!!!
• Read the textbook. Re-read the textbook.  Re-re-read the textbook.  Than, as a change of pace, just plain old read the textbook again. 
• Don’t believe him when he says that if you know the class notes, you’ll be fine.
• Go to the mentored study groups and 4^th hours.
• Read and take notes on the relevant textbook chapters before coming to class.
• Do the reading on-time and relax on the exams and take all the time one needs to answer an exam question completely; ask questions right away if you don’t understand something.
• Go to class - it makes it much easier to understand the material and he is more entertaining than the book.
• Use all the resources provided both in the txt and from the prof’s website and it helps to rewrite notes and to work w/other students. Look @ lecture slides and see how much you remember/understand.
• Read the book.  Carefully.
• Read the chapters closely!
• Be aware of Devoto. 
• Read thoroughly before class.
• Read the book but use handouts while reading. No need to read everything in the book.
• Study from the lecture handouts.
• Take good notes alongside the lecture slides, and review these frequently…..not just on the night before an exam.
• Take good notes and pay attention.
• Be sure you attend every class & take very good notes. And stay awake too.
• Use the Purves website/CD rom to supplement readings/lectures.
• Study the lectures
• Take the Bio/MB&B 192 lab.  The experiments are often related to material discussed in lecture, so doing these experiments helps you learn the material.
• It never hurts to ask.
• Take advantage of Podcasts and TA sessions.
• Read the book. Carefully.
• Attend more of the TA’s and professor’s office hours, especially if you don’t understand all of the material well.
• Meet with him constantly during office hours.
• Discuss the material with other students and do practise problems to solidify your knowledge.
• Know the concepts, don’t just memorize facts!
• Read chps before class.
• Don’t procrastinate on studying. You better KNOW your stuff well enough to teach (or better sometimes). Good luck, man.
• Study not to memorize the lectures and material, understand the concepts and know how to apply them to different situations or experiments.
• Study lecture information and read about that part in the book when studying for exam.  Book can fill in blanks/dispel confusion.
• Make sure that you keep up with the reading so that you can get the most understanding out of the lectures.
• Study concepts, not terms.  Spending a lot of time on critical information will be more useful to you than skimming all the readings and lecture notes.
• Keep up with the reading and review regularly.
• Interact with Professor Devoto one on one because a lecture setting does not do his knowledge justice.
• Make sure you know what you have to read before you start reading.  Don’t just read.
• Talk to a TA about the order of the processes that happen before you take the test.  Devoto often goes out of order in them.  An example of this is that egg & sperm, fermentation, gastrulation, segmentation and development were explained out of order in the lectures.
• Take Good Notes
• Go to office hours!
• Study a lot
• Review the notes after each class, making sure you comprehend the topics discussed in class, which will give you a head start when preparing for the exam.
• Make sure to read the chapters of the book before coming to the lectures about the subject matter.
• Take notes during class.
• take organized notes on the lectures.
• Download and listen to all the podcasts. (Porgy and Bess is a great musical!)
• pay attention in class
• Study hard for the 1^st exam.  It’s easier to keep studying hard after that, then to get a bad 1^st grade and suddenly try to work harder.
• Do all of the readings.
• Use the pod casts and website while studying.
• Study with other students and TAs by making up plausible exam questions that require you application of your knowledge.
• Always read the text before going to class. So you can ask questions during TA sessions, if Devoto doesn’t clarify.
• Go to all the lectures. The book is a nice secondary tool, but the lectures are the main things tested on.
• Honestly, I’d say to worry about learning, and not about the grade. I watched podcasts for all the lectures after attending class, too, did the book chapter problems, struggled through the practice tests, went to 4^th hours, and studied course material doesn’t ensure an easy time on the tests.
• Use podcasts! They’re great for learning.
• Read each chapter relating to material covered in class.
• Go over the practice exams in detail. While not all of it will be n the exam the concepts will be.
• Be skeptical of all answers provided.  If it seems fishy, Ask!!!
• Review your notes using the podcasts.
• Study with others and go to office hours.
• Read about the topics in the textbook before you come to class.  It will give you the context for the lecture.
• Study from the book + lectures.
• Always try the practise exam and work it out several times before consulting the answer key.
• To make use of his office hours.
• Go to all the classes use all resources and read the book carefully also read up on relating topics because they appear on tests.
• Find one or two good study buddies and set up a review schedule with them before each exam.
• Make extreme use of the website, especially the podcasts because it helps to hear the professor’s particular way of putting things, which is often different from the book.
• Read the textbook
• Podcasts!
• Read about the material in the lectures to keep up.
• Read the book.
• Work VERY carefully through the gastrulation diagram question because it is extremely difficult to visualize.
• Don’t fall behind in the reading!
• Go to office hours.
• read the textbook!
• Attend class and only skim chapter beforehand à read after.
• `Do the reading once before lecture, and again after lecture (on the day of lecture), then you will really know if you understood something or not.
• Keep up on reading and study steadily throughout the semester!
• Follow along with the reading before or immediately after each class.
• Pay special attention to the experimental proofs & discoveries that he describes in class: Don’t just know the processes/facts. Know how we know them.
• Take copious notes during lecture and ask questions. Also study anything mentioned in class in detail.  (however briefly mentioned or grazed over it was.)
• It’s more important to pay attention (and take good notes!) in the lectures than to closely read the book.
• Take advantage of resources available - website, TAs, office hours, etc.,
• pay attention to the pictures and diagrams
• Use the podcasts and don’t cram at the last minute!
• Come to every lectures as possible, but if you cannot, see the podcast, which is very helpful.  Also, 4^th hour session, study guide from webpage, and be sure not to remember only, you have to be able to apply your knowledge to the answer.
• Do the reading before each class and take additional notes from the book using the lecture notes after the lecture.
• Make sure to take thorough notes during ALL lectures - they aid studying immensely!
• Read the material before coming to lecture.
• Synthesize book notes w/ lecture note and find out what you don’t know or understand.
• Study notes from last class before a lecture so that topic is fresh in memory and you don’t get confused during class.
• Take very good notes, not everything is in the textbook and if you don’t take good notes you will forget a lot of what you need to study.
• Read the chapters before coming to class.
• Use the online resources provided!
• Read the textbook right after the lecture filling in your class notes where you didn’t understand.
• Class notes are 1000X more valuable than the textbook - he talks about certain things (ex: sonic hedgehog) way more than the book does.
• Be sure to take advantage of Professor Devoto’s office hours and go to the TAs for help.  They are very useful and can help you understand the material you are speeding over in class.
• Make sure you know the information better than on a purely factual basis.  Be able to apply the knowledge to different situations.
• Listen to the podcasts!
• Go to class, but make sure you computer has itunes.
• Don’t try to memorize pure facts because the exam questions seem to be more practical in order to ensure that concepts are understood.  The CD that comes with the book is a useful tool for studying.
• study everything for the tests, not just what he covered in class.  you have to know about things that he mentioned once and things that he didn’t mention at all. and don’t focus on facts as much as concepts.
• Utilize the website.
• Review each lecture the day you go over it in class and correlate between the lecture and readings to gain a better understanding of the material.
• Make sure you understand rather than memorize the material!
• I would tell the student to read the textbook before each lecture.
• Make sure you clicker works or you will lose participation points.
• Rewatch the Podcasts before tests. They are invaluable for rechecking notes taken during class.
• Skim the reading before each lecture, and look over it more carefully after the lecture; this will help you reflect on and understand the lecture better.
•  Understand concepts thoroughly instead of memorizing them, and challenge yourself to look at concepts from many different points of view.
• You’ll save yourself a lot of time if you only read the sections of the chapters specified on the syllabus rather than the whole chapters.
• Go to class - while there are some classes where you get away with not going and still catch up, you need to come to Prof Devoto’s class and take notes on the lecture slides or you will be missing a lot of important information for the exams.
• Go to the lectures + take good notes.
• Make sure to keep upon the readings, and utilize extra time (Ta sessions, 4^th hour, etc.) because there is a LOT of information in this course.
• Stay on top of the reading and do not miss a lecture.
• Study concepts more than detailed facts.
• Read each chapter in detail.
• Pay attention in class
• Read the book before lectures, not right before the test
• I would advise him to test himself using the self-study questions in the book because a Devoto class emphasized more on understanding than on memorization.
• Use all the given resources à keep chugging until it makes sense.
• Do all biology reading before lectures rather than after
• Don’t get caught upon memorizing little details; review broader concepts over and over until you know them.
• Go through the website and look at the suggested diagrams for each lecture when studying.  Make sure you are very familiar with all these diagrams for the test.
• You must read the text thoroughly before the lectures to take the most from them and apply the data.
• (“Don’t forget your clicker.” - just kidding)   “Read the damn book or you will do atrociously on exams, like I did.”
• Use the CD-rom from the textbook and look at the animation on it.
• Go to class & pay attention!
• Pay good attention to his lectures.
• Join a study group and do not procrastinate.
• Attend the lectures regularly & take thorough notes.
• When reading the textbook, skip most details, only skim for basic concepts.
• Focus more on the material gone over in class rather than the book because [most] of the times the book give more details than are necessary.
• Do the reading when it is assigned and enjoy the class.
• Always read your textbook before you attend the lecture.
• Go to fourth hour - I never got around to going, but it looked like fun.
• Take really, really clear notes or listen to pod casts to study.  This is more important than reading the book.
• Even if you are told that the tests will only cover lecture material, read the textbook as well.
• Read notes from class as many times as possible.
• Understand all lecture diagrams.
• Read the textbook before every lecture[s] and take notes.
• Follow the study guide and focus on the lectures.
• Use the resources that the Biology/MB&B dept. provides you - TA’s are your friends!
• Take good notes in class.  The book is only supplementary.
• Prepare to study and study hard!
• Listen to the podcasts!
• To take advantage of the podcast; they are really helpful.
• Focus on synthesizing & understanding relationship in the material, not memorization of facts.
• To pay attention and to study everyday.
• Even though Professor Devoto does not want you to “memorize” anything make sure that you do anyway.  Any specific term or hormone mentioned in class is fair game for the test.
• Attend the 4^th hour and review sessions.
• Pay attention in class!  It saves a lot of study time!
• STUDY!! (yo’ ass off)
• Look at all of the pictures in the textbook that correspond with the reading!
• To a future student, I would say the key is in understanding the concepts while listening in class as memorization later will be of no use.
• Do the practice exam while preparing for the test.
• Some may claim biology is simple memorization but a real biology course/professor will force students to learn the true concepts and premises of biology.  I would encourage students to not memorize but actually learn the concepts of the lectures, since that is how the tests are formulated.
• Keep up with the readings; there is plenty of knowledge to be learned.
• Pay attention to concepts!
• Wake up at least 20 min before class so you are actually awake enough to not fall asleep through it all & pay attention or else you’re gonna have to listen to the podcasts, which is pretty much attending his classes again.
• Budget time wisely, there is too much material to cram!
• Take very good notes on the lecture packets because sometimes the same information is not available in the book and you will be tested on it.

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Copyright 2007-13, Stephen H. Devoto, Wesleyan University

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.