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March 29, 2024, 04:03:41 am

Author Topic: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?  (Read 2535 times)  Share 

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MrTheta

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How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« on: December 13, 2020, 10:57:54 am »
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Hello, I'm taking biology 3/4 next year as a year 11. Over the summer holidays, I am eager to learn most of the Unit 3 content by taking notes. I was wondering how past students took notes, as I am quite conflicted. Should I type out my notes, handwrite them, or draw mind-maps digitally? I was initially considering to draw mind-maps out digitally, however this may be unviable to revise (drawing mind-maps can be all over the place) later down the track. I know how you take notes is really a personal thing, however I'm still curious to know what past students did. Thanks !  :)
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ThunderDragon

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2020, 11:31:50 am »
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Hello

I did Bio 3/4 this year. I handwrote my notes mainly from Edrolo and I also did a couple of mind maps although I didn't really continue with them for Bio just because personally I felt it wasn't as helpful for Bio compared to other subjects although that's just personal opinion. I also handwrote the steps of major processes such as the Intrinsic and Extrinsic pathway of Apoptosis, steps of Humoral Immunity, steps of Cell Mediated Immunity, Steps of PCR etc. It's good that you are thinking of learning the Unit 3 content over the holidays since Immunity while it is very interesting and probs the best part of Bio 3/4, it is also the most difficult part of Bio to wrap your head around.
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waterangel82

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2020, 11:33:23 am »
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Hi, welcome to ATARNotes!

I personally took notes by hand (dot-point form) based on whatever content from the textbook or presentations I found covered the study design dot points. My notes were quite sequential, first starting off with plasma membranes, followed by nucleic acids and proteins, etc. I also liked to highlight key words and phrases, because you are expected in incorporate these into your exam answers, and I found that pretty helpful too.

I like taking notes by hand over typing because in the end of year exams, you will need to write a lot, so I felt it was super important to keep my writing speed up to scratch. I didn't do mind maps, but I think they are a very good idea, because all the concepts in VCE biology do link really nicely with each other. So I think your idea of drawing mind maps digitally is definitely something you could try doing as well.
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matchamilk

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2020, 12:00:19 pm »
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Hi! I finished bio this year, and what I did was I took rough handwritten notes on looseleaf from the Edrolos before class, and I would add to these with any new information/different ways of saying things that we covered in class. I then used these rough notes as the basis for my refined notes, which I did in a separate book. In this book I would write the study design dot point at the top of the page, and then I would refer to both the sheet of rough notes I had made and also other resources, such as other people's notes or the AtarNotes biology guide :) good luck!
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vox nihili

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2020, 01:50:56 pm »
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You've got some great suggestions above. My only advice to add would be that you need to find the way that suits you. Try a few different methods and see what you land on.

For my own part, I felt that how I used the notes was ultimately more important than the way I wrote them. I would try to teach my notes, by basically just talking to a wall. The notes were just a bit of a prompt if I forgot something, but speaking through them ultimately proved much more useful.
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ThunderDragon

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2020, 04:32:29 pm »
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I forgot to add that you could do questions and put any errors in a logbook with the correct solutions and that way, it is a good resource for revision of Sacs and the exam. I personally didn't do this for Bio but I did it for Psych and found it to be rather helpful.
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Stormbreaker-X

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2020, 06:55:55 pm »
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Did not do 3/4 this year, but did do 1/2. I mostly take dot point notes and likewise I divide my notes into whatever topic I am doing and this makes things a lot easier for me.

caffinatedloz

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2020, 08:43:49 am »
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For me, I took notes by hand, which seems to be the preference that many people have. But, the reason I found this useful because my purpose for taking notes was to learn the content, rather than make summaries that I would read again later. I looked through them a couple of times, but mostly it was the act of hand writing the material that helped me learn it. I organised them by study-desgin dot points rather than chapters in the textbook or the order that our teacher taught things.

When I got sick of doing practice exams and questions in late October, I typed out the key points from all of my notes so I actually ended up with a concise typed copy as well. But again, that was more about refreshing the finer details of the content than creating a resource that I would look back on.

Sine

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Re: How did you take notes for biology 3/4 ?
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2020, 02:46:05 pm »
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I mainly did handwritten notes during the summer and then during the school year annotated the slides/notes given to me. Biology tended to have a lot of content so I found using already made notes to be quite efficient. However, as others have said definitely try to work out what will work for you there have definitely been those who have done well handwriting, typing, using others notes, etc.