A few days ago
sharon

How do you become an expert at something?

I have been going to college for 3 years now. I love the sciences, most of all biology. I am planning to go to graduate school and since right now I have some spare time I started reviewing my old textbooks because I want to keep the stuff fresh in my head. The problem is that when I am done reading a chapter I take the quiz at the end of it but still miss something like 4 or 5 questions out of 25 or so. I find this discouraging because it feels as though I will never master the material. Also, I am very curious and I read a lot of interesting things that relate to biology (such as books from the library or Wikipedia). My question is: how do you become totally comfortable with something?

Top 7 Answers
A few days ago
Memere RN/BA

Favorite Answer

I was the same way in nursing school. I felt that I would never be good if I didn’t know everything and I was afraid of making mistakes. but you know what?, you will never be perfect. Your best teacher is experience. I have been a nurse for over 30 yrs and still don’t know everything and never will, but I’m darn good at what I do because of the yrs of experience I had. Don’t try to be perfect, just try to be the best you can and you will succeed.
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A few days ago
Anonymous
You continue the process you are doing now, and give it more time. With just three years of college, be prepared for more years of work and exposure to the subject matter before you could be expert. Real “experts” often live and breathe their subject matter, are totally wrapped up in it. After college, if you work in some area of biology and continue to grow and learn, continue to a masters and maybe even a Ph. D., then you will be getting closer. To be “expert” you may need to pick one small area as a specialty. Continue to read and question and discuss. The road to expertise is a long one, and actually one that never ends. Knowledge grows and changes, so to be expert in any field, you must be a lifelong learner. Best of luck with your plans.
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A few days ago
Anonymous
The best way to learn a subject is to do it. I’m not a biology teacher, but a music teacher, so I’ll give you a music example. If I wanted to teach myself in depth the Sonata Allegro form of music, I would try to compose a Sonata Allegro. My attempt would certainly not be a Beethoven or Mahler, but just in doing it, I would gain a better understanding of what it is. The same with Jazz, if I want to understand improvisation, I need to find some guys and play some music. (or grab an Aebersold CD and play along with the CD)

I’m sure in science there is an equivilent to playing music as opposed to just reading about it.

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A few days ago
joes_mom86
study, practice, practice ,study harder . re read what you just read and take the quiz till you get them all right. are you allowed to sit in for a day or two at the local schools? if so then do that and have the biology teacher show you some more things…learn all you can from diffrent people in whatever it is you love to do.
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A few days ago
Mistress Lucy
Experience. More hands on. Try to apply your studies to your everyday life.
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A few days ago
revise it again and again
you should revise the lesson again and again till you master it.Then you will always be comfortable.
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A few days ago
Hunny
Simple answer: PRACTICE
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