Genetics is a notorious course for demanding a high-volume of information in a short amount of time. However, there are studying methods to assist students in learning efficiently and effectively. I have studied and interviewed groups of medical and science students that have mastered their course work. It is true that there are specific and detailed guidelines that these students adhere to and credit for their academic success. The successful student must understand the fundamental science of DNA and expand on it as a discipline of inheritance and variation in organisms. With some time and applying these study strategies and tips from past honor students of Genetics, you will greatly improve your academic performance.

Study Skill #1 -The basics are essential. Genetics is a course that builds on itself. All the complex principles, genetic disorders, and population calculations relate back to the fundamental laws of cellular mechanisms. This means you absolutely have to know mitosis and meiosis before you can understand the process of non-disjunction. It would be helpful to review the processes of DNA replication, transcription, and translation.

Study Skill #2 - Write out pedigrees for every mode of inheritance. Buy a small dry erase board and do this repeatedly, until you can do it from memory. More importantly, you must understand why disorders will show up and keep in mind the percentages of the offspring affected. These questions are not difficult once you do them over and over again, and they should not be missed on an exam; all the necessary information is included in the pedigree.

Study Skill #3 - Practice for Population questions. Similar to pedigrees, these questions already contain the information you need to solve it. Understand the concept first, but practice finding the numbers and working them out as often as you can.

Study Skill #4 - Make charts for the disorders. Often there is not a clear relationship between the faulty genetic process and presenting clinical symptoms. List the disorders in the rows and make columns for the genotype, phenotype, symptoms, prognosis, and the genetic mechanism.



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