General Biology 103 Test Time: Tuesday 6/7/11 2:30-4:20 pm
Final Exam Study Guide
I. Suggestions for preparing before the exam:
Look over all prior study guides, this will be your greatest source of information about test preparation.
How to prepare for a comprehensive final exam in a really challenging subject?
Ø Divide and conquer! Use your syllabus as a guide.
- Ideally you should study one week of material per study session.
- This means that you need about 10, 20 minute sessions to cover this material well. Maybe more, but that is a minimum of 4 hours between now and the final.
- Devote at least one hour per day, divided into several sessions.
- Study during your peak hours – not late or when you are fatigued.
Ø If you are not happy with the way that your grade has been represented on prior exams re-examine your study strategy. Your prior strategy may not be working!
- Consider how did you prepare for your best scoring mid-term? Did that approach yield the results you expected?
- Did you only study with visual methods or did you also engage in discussions and active learning to master the material? Often just studying over notes is insufficient for higher grades. Other techniques can include: re-writing your notes, organizing information in tables, reviewing and discussion material with others in a study session, color coding your diagrams etc.
Materials to guide you in your preparation:
· Lecture Notes
· Instructor provided learning tables & worksheets
· Figures provided in class of anatomy
· Textbook summaries at the back of each chapter.
· Prelab materials – understand why you missed points, sometimes these
pre-lab preparations will be reflected on the final exam
· Look over the lab results & report summaries. If you missed answers, try to make your answers more thorough or check in with other students about their understanding about these questions for an alternate perspective.
· Examine video guides provided in class.
II. Approximate test distribution
25 % plants
25% animal anatomy & physiology (general) including homeostasis
50% last unit on immunity, respiratory & skeletal unit
III. Format of Exam
v Will be very similar to the previous mid-terms, but 100 points total.
10 pts – take home essays.
35 pts – multiple choice
20 pts – matching
10 pts – dichotomous choices
15 pts – diagrams
10 pts – miscellaneous e.g. short answer, interpretation of data, providing examples, or sequencing.
v Expect figures
1 will be from the plant unit.
1 will be from the previous animal units.
2 will be from the last unit not yet tested.
v There will likely be more matching than prior exams, but with more choices e.g. instead of sets of 5, there may be two sets of 10. This means discriminating differences is even more important because there are too many choices to only guess from – you must know matching well and a good place to start studying are the prior match sets from previous exams.
v Given data could you make a graph following all of the graphing rules covered in lecture and lab? Alternatively you may be asked to interpret information demonstrating comprehension of the scientific method.
IV. Content to prepare for: *Not an all inclusive list
1) Plants
Key vocabulary including structures & processes: double fertilization, pollination, fruit, parts of a seed, meristem, content of wood, tissue types, photosynthesis, vernalization, dormancy, abscission etc.
a. Tissue types – sclerenchyma, parenchyma, vascular cambium, casparian strip
b. Stomata – role, regulation, guard cells etc.
c. Tropisms & Hormones - (know origin of hormones & respective roles).
d. Photosynthesis – equation, where does it occur? Products?
e. Theories related to plants e.g. cohesion-tension theory, pressure flow hypothesis, stomata density correlation with environment etc.
f. Limiting factors for germination – light, water, nutrients etc. What is etoliation?
g. Reproduction – where are gametes made? What is a pollen tube? What does the ovule become after fertilized? What does the fruit become? How are animals involved? Be familiar with asexual reproduction e.g. grafting
h. Transpiration – what factors influence this process? What structures are involved? How does the plant attempt to conserve water?
i. Adaptations for a terrestrial existence – what is sporopollenin? cuticle? means of reproducing without water etc.
j. Classification – know the types of traits that characterize monocots vs. dicots.
k. Development i.e. growth – know the difference between elongation & meristematic growth.What are internodes? Environmental factors e.g. photoperiod
2) Homeostasis
Key vocabulary: pH, water regulation, feedback mechansims, set point.
a. Know examples of positive and negative feedback mechanisms
b. Which systems are involved with regulation of fluid homeostasis in the animal body? Which system(s) deal with waste e.g. waste gas, undigested material etc.
c. Thermal regulation i.e. endothermy vs. poikilotherms/ectothermic
d. Buffering – how does this work and what absorbs H+ ions in solution?
e. Realize that disease is a lack of homeostasis. Be familiar with all disease processes discussed in lecture or the text for the units that were covered e.g. cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, infection etc.
3) Animal units
Examine key vocabulary covered for each section as well as processes and case study examples in each of the following units:
a. Digestive system
b. Nervous system
c. Immune system
d. Respiratory system
e. Skeletal system
The list of vocabulary is extensive, concentrate on what we covered the primarily in lecture or in diagrams.
Also be aware that this class has a unique focus of examining comparative anatomy.
Be able to recognize and discriminate differences between different animal groups with respect to their organ systems; for instance how is the respiratory system of fish, amphibians, birds and mammals all uniquely adapted for their respective environments? How are skeletal elements of a bat, frog, human similar and how are they different? Know unique examples especially e.g. ruminant digestion, nerve net in jellyfish, book lungs in arachnids and so forth.
Recall how we studied each system (typically starting from a human context) in the lab setting. Examples:
- What does vital capacity indicate about respiratory health?
- How are potential infectious agents tested to determine which antibiotic to use if a person has an infection?
- How do we treat bacterial infections vs. viral infections?
- How do infections spread? Are they always follow linear growth patterns?
- How are skeletons able to reveal clues about age, sex, ancestry etc?
- What are reflexes and what are examples of this diagnostic technique?
>>>Remember to study nutrition e.g. where in our diet do we get protein? carbohydrates? fats? Are all fats bad? What is the problem with a high caloric diet or a high sodium diet?
4) Scientific Method
Terminology: Constants, controls, variables, graphs, errors etc.
a. Know the steps of the scientific method.
b. Be aware of the limits of studying the natural world using science.
c. Why is it important to have replicates?
d. What is the difference between positive & negative controls?
V. Final Considerations:
Often students have a very challenging time with being able to discriminate differences in a science type class. The following is a short list of examples of related but different terms, could you recognize and relate to the what makes each term distinctive as well as if they have any sort of relationship?
Antigen vs. Antibody
B cells vs. T cells
Osteocytes vs. Osteoclasts
Synovial joints vs. Symphysis
Axial vs. Appendicular
Bronchi vs. Bronchioles
Oxyhemoglobin vs. Hemocyanin
Negative pressure vs. Positive pressure
Book lungs vs. Gills
Axon vs. Dendrite
Neutrotransmitter vs. Hormones
Phloem vs. Xylem
Stamen vs. Anther
Coleoptile vs. Cotyledon
Guard cells vs. Root hairs
Brain stem vs. Limbic system
Dopamine vs. Seratonin
Innate vs. Cell mediated immunity
Chondrocytes vs. Osteocytes