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as many conceptual connections between the vocabulary terms as you can.

CATEGORIZING TABLES
A categorizing table is used to sort ideas into different categories. For example, if you're in the middle of a diversity unit and you need to remember the different phyla of animals, make a table where you list the different phyla across the top. Use your textbook, the internet, and other resources to look up all the examples you can find of members of each phylum. If you're studying the biomolecules, list the categories of biomolecules across the top of the table (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids), then list examples of each underneath (be sure you know the difference between a type of protein, such as hemoglobin, and a nutritional source of protein, such as meat).

DEFINING FEATURES TABLES
You've just finished learning about mitosis and meiosis, and you just know that your teacher is going to test you over the differences between the two. Text yourself by making a defining features table. Down the side of the table, list all the features that your teacher will test you over, such as "produces two cells at the end," or, "produces haploid cells." Across the top, write "Mitosis" and "Meiosis." Now put a check underneath "Mitosis" or "Meiosis" to indicate which feature goes with which.

READ ACTIVELY
Have you ever had the sensation, while you're reading the textbook, that the information is just bouncing off of your forehead? The problem is that reading alone is too passive. If you want the information to stick, you need to be more active. Get out some paper and a pen and take notes as you read. If the book is yours and you don't mind marking it up, jot summaries of each section in the margin. Are there questions at the end of the chapter? Use these to review the chapters.

OUTLINE
An outline helps organize information into a framework that helps you make more sense of it. Use outlining to merge the information from your textbook with the information from class lectures and labs. As you read your textbook, create an outline of the information. The chapter headers and subheaders will help you organize your outline. Then go through your lecture and lab notes and add in any information that's not in your textbook outline. This is a much better way of studying your notes than simply reading or rewriting them.

LEARN TO TAKE GOOD NOTES
I can stand in front of my class and talk for five minutes straight, and while my students listen attentively, I don't see one pencil moving.

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