BIO

As we are getting closer to November, it is important to keep in mind the strategies at hand for better adherence to effective studying and saving time for practicing with questions. Biology is one of those topics that never ends, and it is difficult to memorize all the details but generally on the DAT there will not be many questions based only on memorization, most of the questions will be concept based, one or two will be most likely memorization. Next, the questions on the concepts are not straightforward it is mainly application based questions.

· To study effectively for biology

· Best thing to do is to personalize your study habits – what worked for me was focusing on one subject at a time and try to fully grasp the content and understand all the topics

o Some topics such as embryogenesis and Neurulation were completely new for me really hard to memorize it the first time around; hence the cheat sheet and must review once or twice if you have time. The key is to manage your time so you will have time to really study the content and later review to make sure you are memorized.

· I know all the available sources for DAT suggest their calendar which provide you with a schedule of doing 1 chapter from each section each day. They suggest studying Biology and chemistry everyday but this did not work for me, since I am not a fast learner with biology and if I don’t understand the topic I will forget it really fast so

I focused on my bio for like a whole week and then went on Chem for 1 week and alternated between the 2 subjects 2 or 3 days dedicated to each subject only. To be honest I spent more time on bio for memorization as there was more topics to cover for bio.

o This works better and you learn easier since on the DAT you are provided with separate biology and chemistry sections so you don’t need to know both science sections as one. Hence, there is no need to study them together. It is easier to focus on each section separately.

· I started with genetics as it is somewhat trickier to understand. Then I moved on to embryology, physiology, and then plants, biodiversity, ecology and lastly cells and molecular biology ( cells and MB is studied extensively in university and high school so I was familiar with most of the topics, but the microfilaments/microtubules/intermediate filaments needed more attention as I will get to it).

· I know that with DAT resources available they provide a biology textbook basically for topics on the DAT à they are useful (somewhat) but not entirely, so you have to try and accumulate multiple resources not just one. I had many resources from videos, websites DAT crusher and DAT Bootcamp to textbooks from my physiology courses (PSL 300 and 301) at UofT, Kaplan, and Princeton.

· I went on the cDAT website on what is covered on the bio section and navigated my way through the topics from there.

· Starting from origin of life; cell metabolism (including photosynthesis); enzymology; cellular processes; thermodynamics; organelle structure and function; mitosis/meiosis;

o biological organization and relationship of major taxa (using the five-kingdom system: monera, planti; anamalia; protista; fungi);

o Vertebrate Anatomy and Physiology - structure and function of vertebrate systems (integumentary, skeletal, muscular, circulatory, immunological, digestive, respiratory, urinary, nervous/senses, endocrine, and reproductive);

o Developmental Biology - fertilization, descriptive embryology, and developmental mechanisms;

o Genetics: molecular genetics; human genetics; classical genetics; Chromosomal genetics;

o Evolution, Ecology, and Behaviour: natural selection; population genetics/speciation; cladistics; population and community ecology; ecosystems; animal behaviour (including social).

· If you look at the topics, they are not hard topics, it does not go in to detail of difficult biology sections like neuroscience or biochemistry. Mostly, it is an overview of broad topics that you have to know after 4 years of studying sciences at an accredited university.

· What I DID

· I watched Khan academy MCAT videos on the topics that I did not get simply by reading up on it, the ones that really helped me out to understand the topic better are Khan Academy videos on mitosis and meiosis (this one was very helpful), Neurulation, and developmental biology.

· (what I did) Make yourself a cheat sheet, very useful for reviewing the material on the last few days for the test

· Cheat sheet handwritten preferably, writing your own cheat sheet is better— it makes you know it by heart and navigate through it more easily

· Make notes about what are microfilaments and microtubules and examples of each of these protein microfilaments, this is a very big topic on the DAT

o In what cell types and parts of the cells microfilaments are only present?

o In which part of the cell are Microtubules present, most important function in the cell?

o Make a chart that contains microfilaments/ microtubules/ intermediate filaments, common features, similarities, differences, locations, main functions.

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· Make notes of plant structures à female and male reproductive system, plant physiology names of the parts, come up with a pneumonic for memorization, e.g PISTIL – Female anatomy opposite of penis

· Fertilization and embryogenesis at least 5 hard hard questions from this topic.

· MEMORIZATION is key here. You must understand the concept first, then memorize all the steps of embryogenesis by repetition, cue card practice to make sure that one key word in a sentence will make you remember the whole process, e.g/primitive streak, what stage of embryogenesis, what gives rise to the primitive streak, what cells does it give rise to?

Neurulation most important topic on the cDAT, always 2-3 questions from this part. There are 4 stages and highly recommend memorizing each step, as there will be questions on the DAT asking for small details of this process.

What I should not have done:

- Made notes on every detail of each bio section

- Review at least 3 times

- ineffective and sloppy time management

- did not use Cue cards for memorization, found out after that they are very helpful in memorization as well as heavy reliance on Pneumonic extremely helpful for Evolution