How to Study Science: What Works in Biology and Physics

To study science well, match your method to what the course asks you to do. Biology mostly asks you to explain processes and structures, so practice drawing diagrams and explaining pathways from memory. Physics mostly asks you to solve problems you haven't seen before, so practice choosing the right principle and solving mixed problem sets without your notes. In every science course, test yourself instead of rereading, and spread practice across the week.

The mistake most students make is studying every science the same way: reread the slides, highlight the textbook, do the assigned problems once. A major 2013 review of study techniques rated rereading and highlighting as low-utility, while self-testing and spacing were rated high.

This guide covers how to study biology and physics, how to get more out of labs, and a weekly plan for either course. Chemistry has its own guide: how to study chemistry.

What makes science courses different?

Science courses test three skills in different proportions: vocabulary, explaining how systems work, and solving quantitative problems. Find out which one your exam weighs most before you choose how to study.

Look at past exams or the practice questions your instructor gives out. If most questions are "explain" or "predict," flashcards alone won't prepare you. If most are calculations, reading the chapter won't either.

How to study biology

Biology comes with a lot of new vocabulary, but exams usually go well beyond definitions. They ask what a structure does, how a process is regulated, and what goes wrong when one step fails. Study at that level from the start.

Learn vocabulary through word parts

Many biology terms are built from the same Greek and Latin parts. Learn the common parts on flashcards, then decode new terms instead of memorizing each one cold.

For terms that don't decode, use one card per term with the definition and one example. Put both directions on cards: term to definition, and description to term, because exams ask both ways.

Concepts such as negative feedback, natural selection or equilibrium need more than one example. Compare two cases that look different, name what they share, and add a near miss that doesn't count; our guide to concrete examples walks through that method with negative feedback across four subjects.

Draw processes and structures from memory

Drawing forces you to produce a structure and its connections, not just recognize them. In a 2023 study in an undergraduate biology course with 145 students, terms that students had drawn were recalled better than terms whose definitions they had only copied, one and three weeks later, with no drawing training.

Use it on any process or structure:

1. Study the diagram or pathway once.
2. Close the book and draw it on a blank page with every label you can remember.
3. Check against the source. Mark misses in a different color.
4. Redraw only the parts you missed, a day or two later.

For example, draw cellular respiration in a eukaryotic cell as a single page: glycolysis in the cytoplasm, pyruvate oxidation and the citric acid cycle in the mitochondrial matrix, and the electron transport chain and ATP synthase on the inner mitochondrial membrane. Add the inputs and outputs of each stage. If you can produce that page cold, you understand the structure of the topic, and details have somewhere to attach. Pairing labels with pictures this way is dual coding. For anatomy specifically, see how to study anatomy.

Ask why, and compare look-alikes

For each process, write "why" questions and answer them without notes:

• Why does the inner mitochondrial membrane have so many folds? (More surface area for the electron transport chain and ATP synthase.)
• Why does a red blood cell swell and burst in pure water? (Water moves in by osmosis because the cell's contents have a higher solute concentration.)

The elaborative interrogation guide shows how to write good ones. Then put look-alikes side by side, because exams love to test the difference. Mitosis produces two genetically identical cells in one division; meiosis produces four genetically different haploid cells in two divisions, with crossing over in prophase I. Make one card that asks "mitosis or meiosis?" for a list of features, and shuffle them.

How to study physics

Physics has few facts to memorize and a handful of principles that solve almost everything: Newton's laws, conservation of energy, conservation of momentum, and the field laws in electricity and magnetism. The hard part is deciding which principle a problem needs. That's the skill to practice.

Solve problems principle-first

Use the same routine on every problem until it's automatic:

1. Sketch it. Draw the situation. For forces, draw a free-body diagram.
2. List knowns and unknowns with units.
3. Name the principle and say why. "Energy, because I know heights and speeds and don't need time."
4. Solve with symbols before any numbers.
5. Check units and extreme cases. Does the answer behave sensibly if a mass doubles, or an angle goes to zero?
6. Substitute numbers and ask whether the size is believable.

Worked example: energy on a ramp

A 2.0 kg block slides from rest down a frictionless ramp 1.5 m high. How fast is it moving at the bottom?

• Principle: conservation of energy. The ramp's angle isn't given, and energy doesn't need it.
• Symbols: mgh = ½mv², so v = √(2gh). The mass cancels.
• Checks: units are √(m/s² × m) = m/s. A taller ramp gives a faster block, which makes sense. The 2.0 kg turned out to be irrelevant, which is worth noticing: for a frictionless ramp, the speed at the bottom doesn't depend on the mass or the angle.
• Numbers: v = √(2 × 9.81 × 1.5) ≈ 5.4 m/s.

Newton's laws would get there too, but only after you introduce the angle as a symbol and watch it cancel. Energy gets there in one line. Spotting the shorter route quickly is what exam practice should build. The formulas themselves are easier to hold onto if you can derive them; our guide on how to memorize formulas shows how.

Mix topics in your physics practice

Textbook homework usually practices one topic at a time. Mixing topics feels worse but works better, and the evidence comes from a real physics course. In an eight-week study at UCLA, about 290 students in an introductory electricity and magnetism course did four weeks of homework blocked by topic and four weeks of mixed homework (the two lecture sections swapped orders). Surprise tests at the end of weeks 4 and 8 used new, harder problems on topics practiced one to several weeks earlier.

Students also rated mixed homework as harder and believed they had learned less from it. One honest caveat: on the graded midterms three days after each surprise test, which students had studied for, the two conditions scored about the same. The benefit was in what students kept from homework alone, before any exam revision.

To do this yourself, take two or three problems from each recent chapter, shuffle them, and write the principle at the top of each before solving. The interleaving guide explains how to build these sets, and how to study math effectively covers the worked-example method that pairs well with it.

How to prepare for science labs

Labs are easy to treat as a separate task you get through. Used well, they're some of your best study time.

Before the lab:

• Write the purpose in one sentence and the concept it tests.
• Predict the result. Sketch the graph you expect, with axes labeled.
• Note the hazards and what each measurement is for.

During the lab:

• Record raw data with units and uncertainty, before you calculate anything.
• Write down anything surprising as it happens.

Within a day after the lab:

• Without your notebook, explain what the experiment showed and which concept it supports.
• If the result didn't match your prediction, explain why. Was it a random error (scatter in repeated readings) or a systematic one (every reading off in the same direction, like an uncalibrated scale)?

For biology lab practicals, practice on unlabeled images and specimens that look different from your textbook's, because the real specimen won't match the diagram.

Study habits that work in every science course

• Recall, then check. After a lecture or reading, close everything and write down what you remember, then fill the gaps. In a 2011 study, students who practiced recalling a science text learned more than students who made detailed concept maps with the text open, including on inference questions. More in retrieval practice explained.
• Space it out. Return to each topic a day later, then a few days later, then a week. Short, frequent sessions beat one long one.
• Do practice questions early. Don't save past exams for the last weekend. Use them to find gaps while there's still time to fix them.
• Keep an error log of every missed question, with the reason, and re-test it a few days later. The five-column template in the math guide linked above works unchanged for science.

A weekly plan for a biology or physics course

About 45 minutes a day for one course. Swap in your own lecture days.