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Honors Biology

Honors Biology was my first honors class going into high school, so it was a bit of a struggle. But don't worry! I gotchu. Here's all my tips + resources + advice.

  • The notes packet is a good help to studying for the tests…but you know what's a great help? Applying your knowledge to procedural problems.
  • What's the difference btwn procedural and conceptual? Conceptual focuses on the surface level things, for example "What blood cell type helps with the formation of blood clots?" while procedural focuses on "omg this person scratched their knee. What blood cell type will be used?"
  • They're basically asking the same thing, but reworded differently. Master the concepts first, then you can dive deeper into the procedure and how it all exactly lines up.
  • DEFINITELY study the relationships btwn different concepts! If there isn't any oxygen nearby then what happens to my lungs?!(Okay this is a super simple example. But the questions I'd get would be like that.)

Resources

  • Ultimate Quizlet Folder! (not made by me, credits to amyabueg). This carried me with conceptual ideas!
  • Make study boards based off of your notes, scan ur notes and Chat GPT procedural questions from them, and ur all set :)

Honors Chemistry

This class had online lecture videos that we wouId watch before coming to class. In class, we had a lot of fun labs and did POGILS + other assignments! I personally loved this learning style because I could slow the lecture videos down if I didn’t quite understand a concept at first. And it was PERFECT for review! Now, my tips and tricks…

  • Honors chemistry is a class that you don’t really want to cram. I’m guilty of studying last minute and it really wasn’t worth the struggle when I could’ve just reviewed throughout the week…
  • My best method is that once all the lecture videos are posted, WATCH ALL OF THEM. Really understand the first few videos, then just visit the last few videos. You don’t have to fully fully understand the last few videos, you just need to visit it at least once so that in the future, you have some foundation in it.
  • This really takes around 2 hours + breaks, sometimes even longer for me. But trust me, this method works. Watch all the lecture videos at least once before your first class in the new unit, and you’ll fly high.
  • Compared to honors biology, the questions you’ll get on tests and quizzes aren’t worded too weirdly. They’re straightforward and I remember using the process of elimination A LOT.
  • Lock in early, so that for the harder units, you’ll have some room for failure and it won’t topple down your grade.

Resources