Come to class ready to learn. Bring your body and alert mind to class; listen and participate. Take good notes. Realize that you are responsible for your own learning. Use the study guide to help you get engaged with the material.
Do the reading and other assignments within 24 hours of the corresponding class. This will tie things together and make them easier to remember.
Study weekly with a group of three to four students (including yourself). Go over the key concepts, discuss the most important points, and study the diagrams from the text and from lectures. Quiz each other on the study topics, then trade places. Clear up questions about your notes using the web notes and the other students' notes. You will still need to study for tests, but that should be a review, not a first assault on the material.
Taking a course is like being in a sport. You have to work out (study) almost every day if you want to perform well in the games (tests). Nothing you can do on the night before the test (game) will compensate for the fact that you didn't do the necessary work (workouts) as you went along. Development of skills and knowledge takes time are repeated use.
If you are having problems, get help. Ask questions in class. Ask questions in your study group. Visit the professor during office hours, or send an email or make an appointment.
How to Do Well on the Next Test
Here is a list of suggestions on how to do well on the next test. You might be doing some of them already. You really should be doing all of them if you want to get the maximum learning (and the maximum grade) in the course.
1. Come to every class. Sometimes this will get you bonus points, but it will always get you test points. It is easier to remember something you have heard, seen and (perhaps) felt or smelled than it is to remember something you have only read.
2. Put in two hours outside the classroom for every credit of each course. This means six hours a week for this class. Are you doing this? There is way too much material here to cram it for the exams...you should be learning it as you go along.
3. Practice asking and answering questions, rather than just reading the book or your notes. A good way to do this is to play "Jeopardy" with your notes (diagram below). On a blank sheet next to your notes, write questions that blocks of your notes answer. If your notes list four kinds of gymnosperms, the question is, "What are the four kinds of gymnosperms?" Write good questions, and you'll see some of them on the test. Make up simple (give the answer back) questions, and deeper (compare/contrast, interpret) questions.
4. Print the notes from the web. More than the book, this tells you what I think is most important. Don't just read through them for understanding--use them to fix up your own notes, and extend the "Jeopardy" game.
5. Study partners? Yes, it's much better to study part of the time with a couple of other people. Suggestions for what to do when in a study group can be found by clicking here.
6. Turn in your work on time. Late work is not acceptable.
7. Get help if you are baffled. Come at office hours or make an appointment. We'll find a time that works.
8. Read the book as you go along, using it to play "Jeopardy" and answer the study questions. Even if the material is identical to lectures, it will be presented from another perspective.
9. Do things outside the class that help you get more involved: inspect your vegetables, download and use the learning aids, check out the plants around you.