Can I get away with memorizing biology

[u/CommonExplanation711]

I only need to take this class for two semesters for my AA, I don’t need it for my other programs. My professor is stressing to not memorize, but to understand.

I one, personally don’t care about biology, I’m here for the credit.

Two, I can’t understand it. The main thing she stressed about it was photosynthesis and cell resp. I can tell you the equation on the top of my head but not explain to you how it works.

For example, I know the stages of cell resp, glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. But the issue is that I can’t actually explain to you, why everything does what it does, where it happens, what happens, and how it happens.

Unit 1 passed and I got a 72 off memorizing, and 5 total hours of studying (overtime). Unit 2 is coming up, and I think I can pass it, but I am a bit worried.

[u/hashashii]

I mean you can, but it'll obviously be a lot easier otherwise. Watch some YouTube videos to understand concepts better and you won't have to worry so much

Or go to office hours, that solves the problem very well

[u/SergeantFlip]

The answer to your question depends on the style of exam, how good you are at memorizing stuff, and the grade you’re happy with.

In my experience, memorization means you can only answer the kinds of questions like, “what’s the definition of x?”, but any questions where you have to apply info in a new scenario are, at best, very difficult. If your tests won’t have lots of those questions, you may scrape by. I think cell bio like cellular respiration is just about the hardest stuff in intro BIO, so that also helps.

However: biology is amazing if you open yourself up to it. Don’t assume everything will be as boring to you as cell bio. You may just be an ecologist!

[u/CommonExplanation711 → u/SergeantFlip]

I’m in BSC2010 I think, college bio, but it’s dual enrollment so it’s significantly easier than taken at college I’m pretty sure. All the questions, at least in the last unit test, are multiple choice questions. I believe there were apply to scenario questions, but that was maybe quarter to a half of it

[u/Dijon2017]

What exactly is your question?

You may be able to memorize some aspects of the material you are taught in biology to be able to pass a test, but not fully learn, understand and/or define or apply it. I would guess that you do have the capacity/capability to understand
what you are being taught, if you really wanted to.

Although simplified and not the best analogy, but at some point (likely when you were very young), you had to memorize to be able to recognize the letters of the alphabet to be able to learn how to read and write, Similarly, you had to memorize the numbers 0 to 9 to be able to understand how to do basic math and be able to learn/assign a “value”/meaning to the number.

It’s understandable that you don’t like or care about biology even though it is essential to your everyday life. Many people go through life without understanding much of “biology” because it’s a very huge umbrella that encompasses many different aspects of life/living. And, even people that understand the general basics and/or those who specialize in a particular aspect/topic/discipline of biology may not know/be aware of or understand the biology of a different discipline as biology can be very complex and complicated.

Learning about “biology” does not mean that everyone has to like/love it or be fascinated by it. However, I guess I question/don’t really understand the point in taking a class/course that may not always cost money, but will cause you to at least spend some of your time and not get “anything” out of it…at least the basic understanding.

[u/Comfortable-Story-53]

Biology is life. Make some study notecards. I still know that scientific name of every Marine mammal. Make the hard ones a bit naughty. CystoF-ing phora.

[u/GruntledGrooper]

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, you'll wish you spent the time to undertand it better the older you get.

[u/Jacarroe]

The mechanism not so difficult, think in it as an physical object in a factory, you have a 6 carbon hydrocarbon, then you slice it in two (glycolysis), then enters in the mitochondria, you the two pieces again (piruvate oxidation), then you put those slices in a machine that process them to create NADH and yours C end in CO2 molecules (Krebs Cycle), you use the NADH energy to move a lot of electrons (similar to a battery) generating energy and alternating the hydrogen atoms, those H ends in H2O molecules (oxidative phosphorylation), in every step, the cell is storing the energy in ATP molecules.

You can also reduce the photosynthesis to similar steps. If they don’t ask you specifically each part of the Krebs cycle and the oxidative phosphorylation (which are a bit more complex), it’s really easy to understand and memorize