No. 3: The Rule of Simplification
For any structure, event, or principle in biology, there
are complicated and there are simple ways to memorize it. Find the simple
ways, and you'll save time AND remember them better.
In lecture and in the text book, we present material in depth,
with supporting information and illustrations, sometimes in great detail,
because you need that detail in order to picture and understand each topic.
However, once you've heard and understood the detail, you probably
don't need all of it in order to memorize the fact, structures, principle,
or event.
I may have shown you a color illustration or a photograph,
given an example, and explained the details. You COULD learn the material
by memorizing the text or my lecture, along with the illustration(s). ALMOST
ALWAYS, though, there is a much simpler way. Once you understand the
concept, you can usually distill it down to its essentials--a very simple
sketch, perhaps showing two or three or four stages of events, perhaps with
a few key abbreviations thrown in. (In fact, this 'essentials' version
is known as a 'chunk' in learning, and 'chunking' is how experts think.)
IF you can simplify it, your memory task is much easier, and usually you
can recall it with many of the details you didn't include in the sketch.
Realize that all of biology refers to real physical objects or events,
and so all of it can be represented in sketches. Words are necessary
to explain those sketches, but if you have the sketch and the terms for
it, you can reconstruct a description.
This is exactly the way I (your professor) study and
learn in biology. I know that my brain is slow to memorize complex
but accurate diagrams, often with multiple colors. The task is too
hard, the sketches too complicated. I know that my brain is slow to
memorize even a few lines of text. I can't even memorize short song
lyrics. However, I've learned to be good at chunking: simplifying complex
structures or concepts down to their essentials. And, I've learned
to be fairly good at matching the more complex aspects of a process back
to the correct part of a simple figure. Years ago I learned that on an exam,
if I quickly redrew my simple sketches in a margin, that I could then describe
the associated events or structure in detail, or explain what would happen
if something was changed, or predict an application of that principle in
a new situation.
For more on how to do this, you can go to my section on 'Minute
Sketches' [Instructions for Minute
Sketching as a pdf file].
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to Seven Rules for Learning]
Last updated 9/01/2009
College of William and
Mary, Department of Biology
pdheid@wm.edu
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