Plug in Notes and 1 Plus 3 Notes

My Bio 121 exam is on October 24th, so I decided that I would use both the Plug in Notes and the 1 Plus 3 Notes to prepare for this exam. I wanted to test out which strategy would be most helpful out of the two, and on top of that I wanted to do everything I could to do learn the material in the most efficient way possible.

Plug In Notes

For this strategy I went to my BIO 121 lecture, and took down many key concepts and terms. Right after class ended I used these notes, and the information that I remembered the professor spoke of in class, and I wrote down some possible test questions. What I noticed during that lecture was that, for every term we h

ad to know the building blocks, functions, and its purpose. So, for my questions that is exactly what I did. I made questions for myself that made me reinforce these terms, and beyond. As a a student, this was a method that allowed me to look back at my notes, and it was almost as if I sat through a lecture twice. Furthermore, this allowed me to memorize the information, and

I felt as if I made the most out of the lecture. One p

roblem I had was that sometimes I

would have another class right after my lecture, so I would have to do these questions around nighttime.

1 Plus 3 Notes

For this strategy I immediately noticed that this forced me to organize my notes, and focus on the key/basic topics. In the given space I noticed that I could not go too much in depth with anything, however, from experience, I know that if I knew the basics I was in a great position to tackle the details. So for example, in section A i listed some of the key basic topics of the unit that was covered during lecture. This may have not been all the terms, however, it were key concepts that would eventually lead me to to the more complex concepts.

In Section B, I put diagrams of a Eukaryotic cell, th

e cell division, and the process of meiosis because these diagrams alone would serve me better than a paragraph for each of those terms. Also due to the lack of space I was only able to explain each term very briefly.

For section C, I listed some of the possible test questions that I thought my Professor would ask. Since, he likes to ask specific questions, and not just the definitions of the terms, I took a very detail oriented approach when making t

hese questions. I noticed that it was a effective way to close out my notes because after finishing sections a and b, making up these questions made me look back at those terms for one last time. I had to really think, and look back at my textbook to make these questions.

NOTES(I use my laptop to take notes)

1 Plus 3 Notes

I found the 1 plus 3 notes to be more effective in a class like BIO 121. There is a lot of information to be learned, and furthermore, the questions on the tests are very detailed. Also, in the 1 plus 3 notes it forced me to make test questions, and on top of that reorganize my notes, so it obviously is a better strategy then the plug in notes. One problem I had with 1 plus 3 notes was that I could not fit as much information as I would have liked. It may be because I just started using this strategy, but I think I study more efficiently by just making a study sheet that has all the details written out for me.