(no subject)
One of the classes I'm taking is CLST 301: Technical Terms of Medicine & Biological Science. In this class, we learn Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words that pertain to, what else, but medicine and science. This week we have a test on module 3 and 4 (there are 10 modules), and module 4 is the reproductive system. The tests are computer generated (everyone has a slightly different version), and everyone writes their test in their scheduled lab session, thus not everyone writes the test on the same day. I wrote mine yesterday morning, and a girl who is also in my MICB 324 class wrote hers this morning. Before MICB 324 today, we were chatting a bit about CLST 301, and this was part of our conversation:
Me: I had a lot of eyelid* questions. I also had a lot of glans penis questions.
Her: I had a lot of penis questions.
I'm sure I don't have to explain the hilarity of this.
For this course, I have found what works for me is repetition. Since this course just consists of memorizing words, I have found that making flash cards is helpful. For this type of learning, the key to success is frequency of studying, not the time spent. Thus spending two hours memorizing a list of words is useless, and spending five minutes going through a set of flash cards a few times a day is very beneficial. I often "study" while on the bus, so studying for this course really doesn't eat up any of my time. Because I'm trying to remember words and need to know the spelling, saying the words out loud helps me. Of course when I am on the bus I just mouth the words, or very quietly say them to myself if I am not near anyone. While studying module 4, studying words like "penis", "vagina", "scrotum", "nipple", I felt like I had Tourette's or something!
*I mentioned this because this word is from module 1, the first word I had to learn. I had difficulty remembering it because it was a totally new word to me, something I had previously told this girl, but I did end up learning it.
For those of you who are interested:
blephar- = eyelid
balan- = glans penis (balan actually means "little acorn")
phall-, L. pen- = penis
colp-, L. vagin- = vagina
osche- = scrotum
thel- = nipple
Me: I had a lot of eyelid* questions. I also had a lot of glans penis questions.
Her: I had a lot of penis questions.
I'm sure I don't have to explain the hilarity of this.
For this course, I have found what works for me is repetition. Since this course just consists of memorizing words, I have found that making flash cards is helpful. For this type of learning, the key to success is frequency of studying, not the time spent. Thus spending two hours memorizing a list of words is useless, and spending five minutes going through a set of flash cards a few times a day is very beneficial. I often "study" while on the bus, so studying for this course really doesn't eat up any of my time. Because I'm trying to remember words and need to know the spelling, saying the words out loud helps me. Of course when I am on the bus I just mouth the words, or very quietly say them to myself if I am not near anyone. While studying module 4, studying words like "penis", "vagina", "scrotum", "nipple", I felt like I had Tourette's or something!
*I mentioned this because this word is from module 1, the first word I had to learn. I had difficulty remembering it because it was a totally new word to me, something I had previously told this girl, but I did end up learning it.
For those of you who are interested:
blephar- = eyelid
balan- = glans penis (balan actually means "little acorn")
phall-, L. pen- = penis
colp-, L. vagin- = vagina
osche- = scrotum
thel- = nipple