to How Study for Biochemistry (or any other course in
PharmD Program) Daily
Adapted from excellent webpage at:
www.pharmacy.purdue.edu/~mcmp304/HowToStudyDaily.shtml
Lectures in MCMP 304 are prepared and presented assuming that students will have
already read about the topic and studied it before hearing the lecture. It is extremely
important that the students not get their first exposure to the majority of the course
material during lecture presentation. Also, students should never study before lecture from
the lecture slides that are provided for note taking.
Reasons for doing the assigned readings
The textbook provides a different explanation of the material than is presented in lecture.
Hearing the same thing explained in two different ways (by two different people) is far better for
understanding than only hearing one version of the explanation.
To be effective, your reading must be thoughtful and deep. By deep, it is meant that you should
be letting the reading trigger thoughts of all sort s of related things and all sorts of questions:
Why? Why not? What else? This cant be true because etc.
When reading before lecture it is particularly important to note anything that confuses you or any
question you have and cannot answer from the reading alone. These are what you will be
listening most carefully for during lecture. In this way, the lecture and readings are synergistic.
Also when reading before lecture, its a good idea to look at the learning objectives and find
where these are described in the reading and pay particularly close attention to whether or not
you understand them from the reading or if you need additional clarification.
Some excuses often given for not reading the textbook, and why those excuses are not valid:
1. Theres not enough time to read it all. MCP 304 covers 11 chapters, comprised of 456
page of the textbook, in 39 lectures. About half those pages are figures, tables of contents,
references, and problems at the ends of the chapters. The remainder is about 230 pages of
text to read, or about 6 pages per lecture. That should take about 40 to 60 minutes to read
thoughtfully and deeply and take notes relative to the learning objectives. Thats about 39
hours in the entire semester, or just 3 hours per week. Since students are expected to
study at least 3 hours for every lecture hour , the reading represents only 1/3 of that.
Yes, the ratio of 3 means students taking 16 credit hours should study an average of 50
hours per week outside of class. The amount learned by students is directly related to the
amount of effort put into learning.
2. The textbook is too expensive New it may cost 192 or as little as $95 for the eBook.
This can be used for two semesters, so the cost per course is really half of that. The cost
of attending college is over $7,000 per semester, not counting wages lost from not
working. This textbook represents an additional cost of at most 1% in the cost of your
education. Since reading the textbook is as important as attending the lectures, it seems
pretty silly to throw away half the educational value of college to save 1%.
How to Study Before Each Lecture
Readings
The readings in the text for each lecture (as originally scheduled) are listed on the course web
site. However, the lectures may fall behind schedule or in some cases topics are split across more
than one lecture. A more detailed listing, with the specific readings for each topic, is also
provided on the course web site. The vast majority of these will be readings in the assigned text.
In some cases, other reading or eLesson material will be indicated. Links to this material will be
provided on the course web site or the material will be provided as a printed handout in class.
Before each lecture, read the assigned reading and make notes of anything you find confusing or
difficult or impossible to understand. If possible to write as a question, note any questions you
have from the reading.
Learning objectives
The learning objectives are the facts, processes, and concepts that should be learned in MCMP
304. These have been identified for each topic covered, and within each topic have been grouped
into three groups: Facts to be learned, Formulaic process learning, and Concept learning.
For some topics, only one or two of these groups may be represented. Practice problems will be
made available on the course web site for each formulaic process to be learned.
Additional pointers about these three kinds of learning objectives:
Facts are considered stand-alone items of information that require only
background knowledge and a general understanding of the language to understand
and use. Such facts can be memorized. However, it is very important to link each
fact to its topic, and thus also group facts belonging to the same topic. These
associations make it possible to apply these facts to new problems, and also
provide a type of reinforcement to the learning of each fact and its association
with a topic.
Formulaic processes are processes which can be committed to memory without
much understanding of the principles and concepts involved. For instance, one
can remember the process used to solve certain simple algebra problems, such as
solve for x + 5 =13. Along with the process, one has to learn how to recognize
when to use it. Also, like facts, it is important for general problem solving to
remember the topic with which the process is associated. This helps to group the
process with the facts and helps build the overall topic as a concept.
Concepts are anything that is more complex than isolated facts and formulaic
processes. They can be as simple as definitions, or as abstract as the similarities
among (or sometimes distinctions among or even other types of relationships
among) a group of subcomponents which might be things (molecules or cellular
structures, for instance) or abstractions of things (such as metabolic pathways,
enzyme catalysis, enzyme inhibitors, cellular signaling systems) or abstractions
(concepts, definitions, causes, responses, etc.) Like the other two types of learning
objectives, it is important to remember the linkage of each concept to its topic.
This is very important for solving complex problems that might require
combining one or more facts and/or formulaic processes with one or more
concepts. Remembering the associated topic for each concept makes it much
easier to quickly identify which concepts might apply to any specific complex
problem.
Self-assessment learning
Before of each lecture, but after doing the assigned reading, review the learning objectives for the
topics to be covered in that lecture and note which you know well and which you dont know
well. Also, you should note which learning objectives are unclear or confusing or any questions
you have about them.
Some students in MCMP 304 find it very difficult to determine if they really have learned what
is indicated in a learning objective. Listed below are some ways to help with this:
Commitment to memory can be tested by simple flash card methods used when
working alone, or lists when working with a study partner. When the associations
between topics and facts, processes, and concepts are included with all the facts to
be learned, there is a lot to be learned for 304, so try to be as efficient as possible.
Also, you will find that associations with topics become easier to remember if the
concept, fact, or process is learned first. In some cases, there are some shortcuts
available where learning can be prioritized so less important information is
learned last and only if time is available. Listen for clues about what is most
important during the lecture. Also, if it is shown in the slide it is more important
than if not shown in a slide. If it is discussed (mentioned verbally), it is more
important than if it was not discussed in lecture. In some cases, the instructor may
simply say which things are more important and/or less important to learn.
Formulaic process learning can be tested using the practice problems provided
on the course web site.
Concept learning is the difficult to assess, due the variety of types of concepts. In
general, concept learning must produce understanding of the concept, not mere
memorizing it without any understanding. Conceptual understanding means that
you can apply the concept. How the application is done depends on the type of
concept. Definitions are the clearest among concepts to be learned. Understanding
of a definition is best tested by testing ones ability to correctly identify cases that
meet the definition from those cases that are similar but do not meet the
definition. This does not mean memorizing which examples fit and which do not
fit a definition. Understanding means that you can used the definition on ANY
case and from your understanding reach a conclusion about whether the definition
fits or not. Understanding of a relationship, including similarity or distinction,
between things can be tested by applying it to other, unrelated things. So, if you
understand the relationship in the abstract sense, you can test it by applying it to
concrete examples, including examples other than the ones you used to learn the
concept. For example, a rider is to a horse, as what is to an airplane? (pilot).
Typically concepts that are described as relationships are simply definitions that
are not easily put into a few words and are best described via examples. Simply
memorizing the examples does not produce understanding of the concept, any
more than memorizing the words of a definition. One must be able to apply the
understanding to new (never before seen) examples. Thus, the best way to test for
such understanding is to test you ability to apply the concepts.
How to Learn More During Each lecture
Assuming one has prepared for lecture as described above, there are sixthings to note during
lecture:
1. The answers to your questions that you identified during your preparation for lecture
2. New material not in the readings (or that you dont remember from the readings)
3. Hints about what is more important and what is less important
4. New associations or related facts and concepts that you were not already aware of
5. Corrections of the reading material or differences between the lecture and the reading
material
6. Questions or confusion that arises in your mind during the lecture
How to Study After Each Lecture
Generally, if you do all of the activities recommended above, you should have no need to listen
to lecture a second time. However, if you could not prepare adequately for lecture, you missed
attending lecture, or you feel that you did not make adequate notes of all six types of things
noted above during lecture, then it may be worth your time to listen to the lecture a second time
after you have prepared adequately for it (as indicated above).
However, even those well prepared for lecture may have questions that came up during the
lecture or may have questions that arose before lecture and did not get resolved during lecture.
Those should be resolved by studying as soon after lecture as possible.
Also, after each lecture, it is a good idea to review the learning objectives for each topic covered
in that lecture to make sure you have learned each.
Not enough time? Then your study methods are not efficient enough
If you think you have more studying to do but cant fit it into 9 hours per week then you
probably are not studying in the most efficient manner.
To assess your time usage, keep track of how much time you spend on each activity, such as
reading and thinking before lecture, rereading, listening to lecture recordings, group study,
practice problems, practice quizzes (taking and then reading the key), studying for exams, time
spend after each exam figuring out what you are doing wrong, etc. Dont include time in class.
Total up the time each week over the first 4 or 5 weeks of the semester and see what your
average is and which tasks you spend the most time.
For each task you did, ask yourself if it was worth the effort.
Also, identify additional study methods that you could do if you had more time and that you
think would improve your learning. Might any of those help your learning more than the
approaches you have been using? Or perhaps they would be no more effective, but might be
more time efficient.
Often students listen to every lecture a second time via the audio recordings. This takes 2.5 hours
per week or about 30% of the 9 hours. Is this really time well spent? In most cases it is not time
well spent because it over emphasizes memorization and underemphasizes conceptual learning.
Learning concepts is more time efficient than memorizing facts, because concepts include facts
and provide a means to validate fact recall, something that memorizing facts does not provide.
Thus, putting more time into concept learning and less time into memorizing will improve your
study efficiency.