You may or may not have heard about the lab tests before you enter biology 2 but as a warning these tests are among the hardest I have taken in my college career. These tests are not a pushover test like you would think, there is a lot of material to be memorized and a lot of slides you have to know the name of. I suggest as soon as you hear the lab test is coming up you start studying IMMIDIATLY. Time is your biggest enemy when it comes to studying for this test. A hint at how hard my test for this was, I had a 127 question fill in the blank test.
Look up external sources for slides
Your teacher may use the slides you looked at in class but more then likely with the age of technology he will do like mind did and put pictures on a power point presentation and just cycle through them. In this case your drawings you have made will do you only so good since most of the pictures will be different then what you observed. The internet is your friend here. I Google searched every organism that I was told to study and looked at multiple pictures of them. Remember, organisms like dinoflagelates, diatoms, and radiolaria have MANY different forms. Looking at just one picture will not be good enough.
If your teacher gives you a study guide consider it a blessing from the gods
Some teachers decide to be nice to their students and print up a study guide for them to study from; some do it just so they can so “I told them what was on the test so it’s not my fault the failed.” In either case, be very happy that they gave you one. I recommend studying EVERYTHING on that page and putting it to absolute memory. Your teacher may or may not curve this test. Do you want to risk it? Like I said before, my teacher gave my class a 127 question fill in the blank test and he gave us a study guide with all 127 answers on it. Your teacher isn’t kidding around when he gives you a page with size 12 font typed full front and back and says that is the test. You have to know every organism, what it looks like, it’s kingdom, genus, phylum, order, and domain. If your teacher doesn’t give you a study guide I recommend looking back in the notes and looking at every organism he or she has heavily touched on and knowing everything about them.
Study groups are your friends
People will be blowing this test off because they won’t believe it can be this hard. I suggest getting all your friends in the class together and making a study group and hoping to salvage their grades along with yours. Even if you are reading straight from the study guide to the group questions will be asked and you’ll be committing the material deeper in your memory just by teaching the others.
Spelling counts
Your teacher may be like mine and give you a fill in the blank test which means you have to know how to spell, or at least approximate the spelling of all the words. Even if you are guaranteed by your teacher this is a multiple choice test answers are similar so simple word recognition may not be enough. Also, depending on how mean your teacher is he may give you a misspelled version of the word first and then down the list a properly spelled version. I have had it happen to me so be prepared,
Study in the order the material was taught
Study in the same pattern the material was taught to you. It will help you remember that answer that is on the tip of your tongue if you can remember that is its between a certain point and another.