definitely sleep, especially before you study. it’s great help for memorization. if you’re tired/distracted/uncomfortable, you’re not able to retain as much information. take your biology notes and get comfortable–curl up in bed if you have to–and start to read it like you would read a story, piece by piece, each piece related to and influenced by the others. don’t get distracted, don’t listen to music, and make sure you’re not thinking about other things whil you study. it’s both inefficient and can confuse you!

here’s what I do, and I take AP biology and have a ~95 average. (trust me, my AP bio class is so much harder than other school’s…my teacher is insane and we do everything in the campbell textbook and more…last year, the 100 kids who took AP bio all got 5’s on their exams…)

i read the notes, twice or three times if i have to, and remmeber the vocab words and processes if i come across some.

so, even tho biology is memorization basically, you really also need to understand everything that you’re studying. ask lots of questions and answer them yourself or find the answers, look online or ask other people. for every piece of information you’re memorizing, ask yourself why it happens that way, how would it be similar/different if something is changed, etc. i never thought flashcards were useful, but definitely draw diagrams and make sure you can twist facts in different ways and yet still understand them. can you reword things and still know what they mean? draw diagrams, charts, compare/contrast diagrams, tables, etc. in fact, try to teach someone (parent, friend, sibling) about what you’re learning, and if they don’t understand what you’re talking about, explain it to them–if they ultimately get what you’re trying to teach them, that means you (as the teacher) fully understands the material, too. if they don’t get what you’re saying, that means you don’t understand what you’re trying to teach, and should go over the points that you aren’t able to fully elucidate. in biology it’s also important to make connections–how is one thing connected to another, and what would happen if it is taken out of the system? if you know all this, you really fully understand the importance of whatever you’re studying.

good luck!

Well, sleeping is good in general, and it’s difficult to learn when you’re sleep-deprived (and 4 hrs/night is definitely sleep-deprived).

Just focus on studying. By the way, AP bio has a lot of concepts; notecards may not be the most effective way of learning the material.

interesting research… it is thought that humans actually sleep too much. the ever-recommended 8 hour sleep time is probably excessive. your best thinking/learning potential is actually 7 hours a night. you will feel less groggy, and have more energy. You would be surprised how little sleep matters. but studying gradually, and before bed is a good idea. you know why? if you get REM sleep, the hippocampus, your memory structure in the brain shuts down, and it is thought that if you study a lot before you shut down your hippocampus, that you will retain things better. So sleep on it. There is also evidence that getting drunk after studying is good to help you remember it. I haven’t personally tired this and I’m sure you’re too young to drink, so ignore that suggestion. LOL. good luck for your test.

There have been studies that listening to informational tapes, language or otherwise, can help with the learning process as long as you’re also studying when awake.

Sleep does everything and it does help you retain information. So, it will probably take less time and not quite as much energy. I can’t guarantee it’ll take half the time, but it’ll definitely be less.

sleeping is good so it could maintain information so continue sleeping but not for that long. jajaja