Revision + Exam Help

[Eddie]

Now that everyone's school year is coming to an end a lot of us are going to be faced with those dreaded exams, which we all know take a lot of revision and a pain in the arse amount of thought involved. So I have devised an idea that could possibly, if not probably help you with your revision.

Apparently, by reading alone you remember 10% of your revision and that is short term memory. With writing questions, it is apparently 20-30% of the course remembered. Finally, a whopping great 70% of what you revised can be remembered (and in long term basis) by explaining or teaching people what you are revising.

So it was my idea that people could type up in this thread an explanation of their course. Other people could then give feedback on how easy it was to understand and if someone else knows more on that subject or course and can correct mistakes, they could post replies.

Oh and on a further note, please state the level of education that course is on (plus age groups and ranges). In England examples of this would be GCSE (14-16 years old) and A Levels (16-18 years - Split into AS for 16-17 and A2 for 17-18). This is providing you don't do courses a year early or retake a year. I don't know what it's like for others world wide, maybe you could tell us?

So an example of this would be (from my A2 course 17-18 years) genetic engineering where DNA is transferred into bacteria:

This will cover how the human insulin gene has been inserted into bacteria so that it can be produced. The bacteria is known as a transgenic bacterium after the gene has been inserted into it.

1) The mRNA (messenger RNA or ribonucleic acid - used to copy small sections of DNA so a protein can be made) for the insulin gene has to be found.
2) An enzyme known as reverse transcriptase is added to the mRNA for the human insulin gene. This enzyme makes a complementary code to the mRNA in the form of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The code of the mRNA is converted or translated back into DNA in other words.

The DNA is ready and we shall move on to step 3.
3) An enzyme known as restriction endonuclease (an enzyme that cuts up certain base sequences - sections of DNA) is added to the DNA. The cut up ends produced are known as 'sticky ends' (this because they are reactive and are capable of making bonds).
4) The same enzyme is added to a plasmid (circles of DNA found in bacteria) taken from a bacteria and this cuts up the same base sequences.

We now have the cut up Human Insulin gene and plasmid sections so that the Human Insulin gene can be added to the bacteria's plasmid. Now to step 5:
5) The Human Insulin gene and the plasmid are added together. They are connected at the 'sticky ends' using an enzyme called Ligase. Ligase is an enzyme that helps the joining of large molecules by bonds.
6) The plasmid is added to a culture of bacteria (a group of them in a petri dish for example). Also some calcium based salts are added (this helps speed up the process of bacteria taking up plasmids). Some bacteria may take up the plasmid by transformation (the name of the process).
7) The plasmid is copied or replicated within the bacteria, changing its own genetic make up and many more plasmids are formed.
8) Other bacteria can get the plasmid by multiplication (where the bacteria reproduces asexually - gives birth on its own) and conjugation (where bacteria connect to each other using a tube and take some of the DNA and both bacteria copy it). If the first bacteria with the plasmid died, other bacteria could gain the gene by 'transduction' (eating the dead bacteria to get its DNA).

This way lots of bacteria now have the human insulin gene and can produce perfect human insulin. This is what is used to help diabetics around the world.


Now you can get the picture of what I mean, this kind of stuff may just help you during exams. Enjoy this thread guys!

Eddie

wish my exams are as easy as that >: ~ Marshall

[Alblaka]

I'm VERY lucky i've already done my exams some weeks ago...

Reading this thread would probably have deleted everything i learned, additionally formatted my long-term-memory and crashed my brain with an overload of short-time-memory.
Or something like that... *confused*

[Eddie]

I'm VERY lucky i've already done my exams some weeks ago...

Reading this thread would probably have deleted everything i learned, additionally formatted my long-term-memory and crashed my brain with an overload of short-time-memory.
Or something like that... *confused*

Basically, it would have went 'Kapow'

[Madara Uchiha]

Well this is GCSE's, and I am currently 16 years old.
I am doing History and I needed to revise the date's for the special events that things happened.
By the way is the thing about reading allows the person to remember 10% of something? Cause I seem to remember everything I read.
Anyway


c. 3000BC – 1000BC - Egyptians
c. 800BC – 100BC - Greeks
c. 100BC – 450AD - Romans
C.410 – Romans leave Britain, public health collapses
1348 – Black Death
1543 – Vesalius ‘Fabric of the Human Body’
1575 – Pare’s ‘Works on Surgery’
1628 – Harvey’s work on the circulation of the blood
1714 – death of Queen Anne, last monarch to claim to cure the King’s Evil
1796 – Jenner’s vaccination against smallpox
1842 – Chadwick’s report
1847 – Simpson – discovery of chloroform
1848 – Public Health Act
1875 – Public Health Act
1861 – germ theory
1867 – Lister publishes success of work with antiseptics
1878 – Koch identifies the anthrax germ
1895 – Röntgen – X-rays
1901 – Landsteiner identifies blood groups
1911 – National Insurance Act
1914-18 – First World War
1928 – Fleming (re)discovers penicillin
1942 - $80 million funding for penicillin from US government
1948 – start of NHS
1953 – description of DNA structure (Crick and Watson)
1967 – first heart transplant

Just the dates of key factors and events that I have been trying to remember, because sometimes in history papers they write stuff like "what happened during the 1300s-1700s which effected people's views on public health?"
I would explain these, but I got the exam tomorrow so I am busy running through the dates and trying to remember everything important. The most annoying this is the name of Harvey's book lol. Only people who do history will get that.

[Evil Sonidow]

Actually memorizing just facts and dates is stupidness (before you say, I'm not saying you are, I'm saying your teachers/who thinks like that is). History should be taught and learnt from a more philosophical point of view, emphasizing on the discussion of the events, causes, effects, consequences, rather than what happened at what time. The first approach gives birth to critical reasoning and develops logical and straight thinking, as opposed to mindless memorizing.

That being said, back on the central part of the topic, I thought this thread would be about helping others with revisions and exams, not that huge block of text (tl;dr).

[Eddie]

That being said, back on the central part of the topic, I thought this thread would be about helping others with revisions and exams, not that huge block of text (tl;dr).

It can be. That was just a suggested method that helps people get a better understanding of their own subject by having to teach it.

I am also happy to write guidelines to revision and exam question help. So I shall start with the basics of exams:

1) Look at how many marks you can get for the paper and look at how long you have to do the paper. In most cases this should be about 1 mark : 1 minute ratio.

2) Do not keep attempting to do the question you're stuck on before moving on through the paper. If you do this, it may cost you marks. Skip that question and answer the others before coming back to it. I say this because you can get just as many marks from doing easier questions as you can that one hard question.

3) Try not to stress out. By getting angry/stressed during an exam you lose your concentration. Yes, it is hard to complete the exam and get a good grade, but if you focus you can achieve it that much more easily.

4) Stick to the set amount of lines given in the question. Going over this will waste time as you do not need to write more to get the answer correct. You risk contradicting yourself if you write more, and thus have a chance to lose your mark.

5) Do not move about in your seat, tap your pen on your desk or fidgit. This can distract your mind and also distract other people from working.

6) Read the question and underline the KEY WORDS. You will not get marks for answering what you think is the question, when it's asking something completely different. There is nothing good about losing marks because you misread the question or anticipated something different.

Key words may be found on this link:-
http://www.hometutors.org.uk/basic_exam_skills.html


This is the basics of the help I can give you. I will expand upon it more at a later time.

Hopefully this all helps.

Eddie