General Biology 101 - Linn–Benton Community College



General Biology 101 Study Guide

Final Exam

I. Suggestions for preparing before the exam:

Look over all prior study guides given to you by your instructor, this will be your greatest source of information about test preparation for the comprehensive component.

How to prepare for a comprehensive final exam in a really challenging subject?

➢ Divide and conquer! Use your syllabus as a guide.

- Ideally you should study one week of material per study session.

- This means that you need about 10, 20 minute sessions to cover this material well. Maybe more, but that is a minimum of 4 hours between now and the final.

- Devote at least one hour per day, divided into 3 sessions.

- Study during your peak hours – not late or when you are fatigued.

- If you are not finished with your readings this should be your first priority! Alternatively or in addition to the readings, print off and study intensively from the chapter summaries provided by your instructor on the website.

➢ If you are not happy with the way that your grade has been represented on prior exams re-examine your study strategy. Your prior strategy may not be working!

- Consider how did you prepare for your best scoring mid-term?

- What methods/tools did you use?

• Lecture Notes

• Instructor provided learning tables

• Study Guides

• Textbook summaries

• Study sessions with other students

Remember that most people do not learn by reading alone, you MUST interact with the material on several levels, discussing, hands on activities, writing summaries, organizing notes/worksheets, watching media to have a chance of retaining sufficient content that you may encounter on the exam!

II. Approximate test distribution

Per the biology department’s policies, this will be a comprehensive exam. The distribution will be approximately 50-60 % from the final unit (higher plants & animals) and 50% from the rest of the quarter. The comprehensive component will be approximately 25% ecology & 25% diversity of life (bacteria – lower plants), that means that the heaviest portion of the final exam will be diversity oriented.

Your lab materials will be a VERY important component of the final exam. Numerous test questions will reflect prelab materials and lab observations/activities. In this unit, you may also be asked specific questions about lab techniques such as microscope use, bacteria staining, dissections, graphing, fecal coliform tests etc.

III. Approximate Format of Exam

Will be very similar to the previous mid-terms, however it will be 75 points total.

➢ Take home essay assigned on Friday prior to exam – 10 points*

➢ Multiple Choice Questions – 25 points

10 points comprehensive material

15 points new material over higher plants & animals

➢ Matching – 15 points (3 sets) – Mostly from unit one (ecology)

➢ Fill in the blank -10 points (with a word bank provided)

➢ Lists/Arguments of support – 5 points

➢ Interpretation of data – similar to graphing exercise on exam #2 – it is a good idea to look at this component at the end of respective chapters for an idea of choice examples. – 5 points.

➢ Identification – 5 points for phylum (rotation basis in the room). This will be answered on a separate sheet of paper, when needed dichotomous keys will be provided.

* The take home component is due the day of the final exam – no exceptions. NO LATE submissions will be accepted! It is due at the time that you enter into the exam, and must be in your own handwriting – make it legible if you want full credit. – Details will be provided on Friday.

A scantron will be provided for the exam, but you should bring good #2 pencils with erasers, the multiple choice & matching sections will be machine graded.

IV. Resources to consult for the exam

- Learning tables from the invertebrate and vertebrate exercises in class.

- Worksheets provided by the instructor

- Notes from films e.g. (Lord of the Ants, Typhoid Mary, Ecology summary).

- Self quizzes at the end of each chapter – some questions will be used on the exam – I promise!

V. Content on the exam

Definition of life: What do all life forms require? What limits where life can be?

Basic Ecology: What are the basic principles and models used in ecology? E.g. food chains, food webs, energy pyramids, different species interactions e.g. mutualism.

Survey methods to assess ecology & diversity: e.g. indexes, nested quadrats, dichotomous keys, dissections, fecal coliform tests, survivorship curves.

Populations: What are the demographic measurements made to qualify and quantify populations? What are the factors that affect population growth or decline? Be familiar with the type of graphs used to model populations e.g. Carrying capacity, exponential etc.

Species concept: What is a species? What are the different ways to describe a species e.g. invasive, endemic, indicator, keystone etc.

Taxonomy: How is a species written? Know the hierarchy of classification. What are cladograms? What is the purpose of phylogeny?

Diversity: Know the main characteristics and the importance of each group. Also know why each group is significant e.g. why should we know something about the bacteria and how are they different from the archaeans? How do humans use fungi? Could you cite examples of disease causing organisms e.g. bacteria, protista, insects? What are examples of the living fossils that show the transition points in evolution? e.g. archaeopteryx, lancelets etc.

Material specific to final unit:

Know the following concepts (not just their definition, but why they are important and how they are related to the natural world – including examples as appropriate).

Plants

➢ Alternation of generations (gametophyte & sporophyte). Which is dominant for each group of plants studied: Mosses, ferns, Gymnosperms, Angiosperms

➢ Parts of a flower, male parts, female parts, superior vs. inferior ovary.

➢ Pollination: what animals are likely to pollinate specific types/colors of flowers? Where exactly does pollination occur in gymnosperms? Angiosperms? What is meant by double fertilization?

➢ What is the difference between a seed and a spore?

➢ What exactly is a fruit and what is the advantage of this devise in seed dispersal?

➢ What characteristics of land plants allowed them to make the transition to a terrestrial existence? How are plants different than the green algae their closest protista relatives?

➢ Know the difference between diploid and haploid. What structures are characteristic of each?

Animals

➢ What are the unifying characteristics of all animals?

➢ Study from the phylum handouts in the course documents area under student projects that all students have contributed to. From these you should understand the following important components of each phylum:

- Typical habitat

- Ecological niche i.e. role of the organisms in their environment.

- Hallmark characteristics i.e. what makes them unique compared to other such forms.

- How these animals interact or are significant to humans. E.g. are they used for food? Do they cause diseases? Are they pests or parasites etc.

➢ Focus in the lab and in the lecture was on arthropods (the biggest phylum) you can guess that there will be a stronger significance placed on this group.

➢ What is a coelom? Know which animals have acoelomate, pseudocoelomate and true coelom conditions. Why have a coelom?

➢ Where were the earliest fossil animal forms found?

➢ Know the different types of metamorphosis.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download