Science textbooks these days are filled with complex calculations, seemingly alien symbols, and concepts which are difficult to visualise, and it is no surprise that students struggle with the subject. This article aims to provide some basic tips on how to study Science the right way for exams or Singapore Weighted Assessments.
Firstly, understanding of core concepts is a highly important skill in Sciences, and students should memorise the topics, materials, and related to the subject. For instance, if a student cannot recall basic chemistry facts such as the charges on common ions, they are likely to have difficulty dealing with more complex subject matter and questions. As such, students should compile a list of essential information to remember and revise them regularly so that they do not forget them in time for the exam.
As with many subjects, studying Sciences can be done by working backwards and doing many questions from past year papers. This is done so that students will be more used to how to answer the exam questions with a certain format and the scope of the questions. Students may study and practice with questions relating to the different topics. But the real Science paper may involve questions with the interaction of different fields of study, such as physics and chemistry. Its possible that some students feel overwhelmed by the endless number of topics. Thus simply hunkering down and doing practice exam papers is a good way of revision.
Lastly, many top performing students make mindmaps for Science topics and put them where they can glance at every day. The mindmaps may be organised by topic, with important specific information such as the melting point, solubility, aroma, etc. In Chemistry for example, the information should be split according to functional groups: such as alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, and carboxylic acids. The properties of each group will then be filled in. A mindmap is thus useful for a birds’ eye view of the entire subject, and glancing at it daily could help students absorb the information more readily.
