2 October 2013
Assignment 2: Memory As I wrap up my ninth week of my first semester of college I am definitely starting to get the feel of things. Finally adjusting to the new atmosphere and how much different it is than high school. Every day is a new challenge, every test is a new challenge and college is a new challenge within itself. Studying for tests have never been my strong hand, especially since I did not have to study much in high school. In college that is not the case, I spend my nights in the library and my mornings struggling to keep my eyes open. However, I have accumulated many methods of studying once I learned it would be an everyday thing from here on out. Psychology has led me to believe that the working memory method is the most helpful in my principles of biology class. In biology we are currently learning about classification of the cell, its’ different parts and what it does. It is very difficult to learn the parts and their functions just by repeating them in my head like I normally would. I need something visual in order to remember what I need to know as far as having to remember the functions, characteristics and placement of the cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, mitochondria, lysosome, centriole, chloroplast, cilia and the flagella. Therefore, I resorted to the working memory method that I learned in psychology. The working memory strategy refers to the active maintenance of information in short-term storage which includes subsystems that store and manipulate visual images or verbal information which makes it much easier to learn. For example I started used note cards to exercise the working memory strategy in order to study for my last biology test. I soon figured out it was the best system for visualizing the parts of the cell after having notecard after notecard illustrating each part of the cell. This was the easiest way for me to recall the information later on the test. Another example of the working memory strategy that I have learned really helps is using highlighters in order to learn the information correctly; this is another visual aspect of learning certain information. Using different highlighter colors to highlight the different parts of the cell really help picture the different colors and where they are placed in the cell when it comes to the test. After I felt like I knew the parts of the cell I would then quiz myself by highlighting certain parts of the cell as I would say the name to myself. Certain parts of the cell such as the cell wall and cell membrane are very similar; therefore I would make sure I could decipher the two very clearly usually by putting an extra notecard in the stack just for assurance. Taking into consideration that I am a very anxious learner, it is very hard for me to sit down and study something that does not interest me. My old study habits in high school consisted of scanning over the material and doing relatively average on the test. Recently by using notecards I can visualize what I am being asked on the test because the color coding and the repetition of notecards. I found it much easier to study for tests since it makes my studying more enjoyable and it encourages me when I make really good grades on the test. After adding this method of studying into my curriculum it really showed an increase of my grades. Instead of making a “D” on my biology test as I did the first time, my most recent test grade was a low “B” which I am satisfied with. The significant jump in grades will encourage me to use this method of learning in other courses I am in that also make it difficult for me to learn, such as biology.