Download Am I keeping up? Here`s a simple check on whether you are

Am I keeping up?
Here's a simple check on whether you are keeping up with the work adequately. And a few other thoughts are included.
Not keeping up is a big risk factor.
Below are two lists of 20 vocabulary items each from the two areas of genetics material that we have completed. Every
one of these was covered in class. And when you see these forty, each one should call to mind other vocabulary items
which you must also know.
Here's the moment of truth: The person who cannot define at least 13 in each list (13/20 = 65, a minimum C-) right now
in writing, without referring to notes, is not keeping up with the work and is at risk. Ineffective study skills compound
the problem. But the most difficult material on the next exam will be the genetic code material, still to be completed. If
I’m still stumped on meiosis while lecture is moving ahead with DNA replication, protein synthesis and regulation of
gene expression, I have a problem.
After reviewing the lists, please read on, below.
20 items from the "cell division" material:
cleavage furrow
synapsis
nondisjunction
sister chromatids
tetrad
crossing over
interphase
the 4-item life cycle (for any eukaryote)
homologous
diploid
cell plate
spindle pole
independent assortment
independent segregation
characteristic chromosome number
anaphase II (the stage of ? in which ? occurs)
centromere
metaphase I (the stage of ? in which ? occurs)
daughter cell
ovum
20 items from the "inheritance" material:
allele
dihybrid cross
codominance
Punnett square
pleiotropy
hemizygous
phenotype
autosomal
epistasis
recessive
sex linkage
haploid
progeny genotype
doubly homozygous recessive
zygote
inbreeding
penetrance
carrier
genome
gamete
This little test will sort people into three groups.
(1) There are those who really can define that many, maybe more, right now, without reference to notes. They're not at
risk.
(2) There are those who cannot meet that challenge, perhaps not even close to 13 out of 20. They are at risk. These
have not taken the work seriously enough yet and/or they are hampered by inadequate study tools/skills.
(3) There are those who think they do know the terms, that they're in good shape. But they don't and they're not. If
I’m in this group, when I took the last exam I thought I did OK (not great, but OK), but I was shocked by the 50something or 30-something score. I don’t understand my low score because I thought I knew the material really well
going into the exam. This is the largest group.
For group #3 people, here's the unrecognized factor. Every one of the 40 items is familiar, but many of them are only
that. They should be; every one was covered in class. But group #3 people will look at each term, roll it over in the mind,
and conclude that they know it because it's familiar and they know something about it. They confuse that view with
being able to define the term and then being able to connect to others. This is what happens in the multiple choice
question where I narrow the choices down to maybe 2 or 3 based on knowing something about it. I’m somewhere close
but not close enough. It’s like playing a piano while I’m wearing mittens. I make sounds, all right, but it ain’t music.
Look in the cell division list for homologous. We hammered that word repeatedly in class. Certainly it's familiar to you.
But can you define it? If you say 'yes' to yourself, then get pencil and paper, sit down, and write the definition-- the
definition that you would write on the exam, for credit. Many people cannot do this correctly, even now, this long after
the term was introduced. Writing it down, or trying to, has a way of focusing the mind.
This write it device can help with vocabulary mastery in general. And it can help in other ways. Suppose the exam asked
you to explain the disadvantage of inbreeding or to explain the significance of independent assortment? Definitions
must be known, but these questions want more than that. Why would I not anticipate such when I’m studying and
practice writing answers.
And what if the next exam is another multiple choice bonanza? If I can write a correct, concise, coherent answer to the
explain type of question, then I can find the answer in a set of choices in a multiple choice question. In wrestling with
my correct, concise, coherent written answer, I’ve already sifted through things that are incorrect and irrelevant. If I’m
forcing myself to write about this material in grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs, then I’m forcing myself to go
beyond memorizing.
Further, as I’m working on the vocabulary mastery, I’m still using the other suggestions from day #1 of the semester:
structure/function relationships of the vocabulary items? Levels-of-organization relationships of the vocabulary items?
relative sizes of structures where applicable? arrangement of things in time sequence where applicable? Example:
Arrange the following events in proper order in time. segregation, synapsis, DNA replication, cytokinesis, assortment.
If I know what they are I should be able to do that. But if I don’t consider that as a possible question, I might miss
something.
Finally, if I put on blinders and study something only the exact way it was done in class, I may not be able to handle it (or
even recognize it) on the exam in a different form. We’ve hammered this concept also. Example: The genotype of one
individual is A//a D//D r//r. Write all of the gamete genotypes possible from this individual. Thought process: (1) I
must take this genotype through meiosis to get the gamete genotypes. (2) There are three loci here. (3) In class we
didn’t do any 3-locus problems. (4) That doesn’t matter if I understand meiosis. (5) Meiosis separates the homologues
of every homologous pair. (6) Every gamete should receive one homologue from each pair. (7) Therefore, there are two
gamete genotypes possible: A/ D/ r/ is one and a/ D/ r/ is the other. There are no other possibilities.