Urgh. Apparently I need to adjust my study habits, or figure out what more to expect. I thought I had put the important material to memory. I memorized all that was on the review sheet and then went through my notes to figure out what else “might” be on the quizz. Apparently I got the “might” part wrong. I ended up with a 11.5/15. “C”
Competely unacceptable. I’m not afraid of the mounds of information, but I’m at a loss as to how to figure out what’s important to study and what’s not.
Thus far, I take detailed notes in class, engage the teacher in questions and come home and outline the chapters we have discussed in class from my text book. From those notes I answered the review sheets she handed out for the quiz and somehow, it wasn’t enough.
I’m going to meet with the professor and see if there is more I can do to correct these grades. In some respects I feel a little better knowing the Average was 9/15. If she were to curve it I’d have a “B” but I only say that to make myself feel better since, in reality, I have a “C”.
Who was it that said “le sigh” over chemistry? Yeah, that’s how I feel right now. Blah.
No worries Susan. The first quiz in the grand scheme of things is not going to destroy your course grade and it will help you adjust your habits before the exams.
I bombed my second quiz this quarter in chem and it only ended up costing me like .75 of a percentage point in the class. This week we had our first midterm and I earned the 7th highest score out of 174 students. The class average on the midterm was a 55% so I’m pretty sure that my 87% will be curved to an A. It did kind of suck to know that I was one question away from a 90% though!
Yeah according to their grading scale a 77 would have been a B. I landed with a 76. Irritating. Blah.
I feel your pain. I missed three questions on my 2nd Bio quiz, and was grouchy and thinking “what am I doing here” the entire next day. I realized it was only 2% of my final grade I’m not sweating losing the “A” already, but I was more concerned that if I misunderstood three 3 easy Bio 101 questions, than I am not cut out for medicine.
Like you, I realized I have a study habit issue. I am taking this class online, and I had learned how to ace classes without ever reading the textbook in my undergrad. I just gleaned all the info from lectures & doing homework. Not gonna work in an online class. Plus, my kids + husband came into my office THREE times while I was I was taking the quiz. WTF??? (Sorry - I guess I’m piggy-backing my vent on to your vent.)
It is a relief to know I’m not the only one feeling a little bummed about biology. . .
Vent away. It makes me realize I’m not alone! 
I hope you post any insights your professor has. I know my Psych professor says, “Don’t beat yourself up. You only destroy your confidence. If your self esteem is low, you will second guess yourself the next time. Then you can guess what the trend will become.” I know that in that class I fail to see the big picture at times. It’s crazy. I love his class, but, his weekly 1.5 hr, 85 questions, tests are nuts! I am a year or so till I start biology, but, I am always looking for good studying tips.
I have taken to using a digital voice recorder in my psych class. I like listening to it when I am in a different environment. Let you know if it helps my 100 question test on Tuesday. I am getting a B, but I want an A
Yeah I tried the digi voice thing. But there’s this funny thing when I’m in the car with the baby…He screams bloody murder unless there’s music playing. Like ear peircing blood curdeling screams. And then, many times it has to be Andrea Bocelli singing “Time to say Goodbye” (or goodnight if he’s singing to Elmo, and yes we have both).
Feeling you Susan. I just did about the same on my first Bio quiz (Cell Bio) despite having studied more thoroughly than I ever have for a test. I’m perplexed. But, she says regrade requests are due this week. So I’m gonna go argue for points.
When there is no extra credit, no curve, no dropped anything, and a conventional grading scale it doesn’t seem like there is anything to lose by fighting for points.
Best of luck this semester. I’m already in over my head.
Are you finding that rote memory is not enough?
I remember my biology tests 20+ years ago were more using the rote memory to analyze a question. For instance, (this is ripped from online test question page but is very similar to how my tests were):
A diploid cell contains two pairs of homologous chromosomes. Each pair is heterozygous for a pair of alleles, Aa and Bb respect. After meiosis, how many different combinations of these alleles could be produced in the haploid daughter cells?
a. 2
b. 4
c. 8
d. 16
e. 64
the answer is 4 - AB, Ab, aB, ab
Well, the one was weird and was comparing different terms…resting action potential and threshold potential. I ended up only getting 1/2 a point out of a possible 2 and yet I nailed resting potential and simply reworded what she originally wanted and left off the voltage. I never would have thought to memorize the voltage of threshold potential (which is -55 vltz and I’m never going to forget now LOL). I spent more time focusing on things she hit hard on in class like characteristics of chordates and aspects of amniotic mammals and things like that. I will admit memorizing things like cycles are hard, but there wasn’t much of that on the quiz. I anticipate there will be more on the exam though since we just finished the neruon to muscle relationship. I see the image in my mind, but the text and what’s what goes all fuzzy. I do have the general gyst but that’s not good enough, so back to the drawing board to figure out what exactly is important to memorize and what is not.