[ home port | lectures | labs | surf | email prof. ]

Lecture 27
Final Study Guide

"An oceanographer totally familiar with his field in 1950, but with no further experience,
would flunk a freshman examination in 1998."
-- a professor emeritus of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography

"If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being,
then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life."
-- Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970, American Psychologist)

Characteristics of the Exam

100 questions, 2 points each; no essays
200 points total, worth 30% of your grade
Mostly multiple choice, with a few true/false and 3 sections where you will have to match terms to brief definitions; no essay questions.
Cumulative: ONE-HALF of the exam will cover the lectures on biology (i.e., everything since Test #2), PLUS the guest lectures on Wave Energy and Coastal Zone Management. ONE-HALF will cover everything else since the beginning of the term.
Will try our best to post results in Blackboard by the end of finals week (please don't bug us by email about this!)
Please UNDERSTAND how your final letter grade is actually determined. It is NOT just a simple addition of points scored divided by points possible. If you have been paying attention throughout the term, you'll remember how we have repeatedly mentioned weighted percentages. Please review again the WEIGHTED AVERAGE formula that is used, explained in the syllabus.

How to Study

As you study for the final, keep in mind that the final is essentially multiple choice. Because of this, there are certain types of information that you will want to pay particular attention to. In general, multiple choice exams are best at testing:

vocabulary and definitions
knowledge of facts (e.g., where is the Juan de Fuca Ridge?)
conversions, scales, etc.
simple cause & effect relationships

On the other hand, multiple choice tests do not easily test for in-depth knowledge about a particular subject. So while you are required to know, for example, that the vertical distribution of nutrients is opposite to that of dissolved oxygen, you will not be required to actually reproduce the vertical profiles or explain in depth the reasons behind oxygen and nutrient minima.

The best study guide for this course is your PPT files and accompanying lecture notes. You should devote the greatest amount of your time and effort to this. You may want to re-download Power Point files and lecture notes that have been updated. Everything on the course web site is now in final form. Because there are 100 questions on the final exam, you will be asked at least one question on the majority of topics covered during the class. Any information presented in class could appear on the final.

If there is something in lecture that you did not understand, this indicates material that you may want to spend extra time on. While reviewing the class PPTs and your notes, take care to pay attention to figures and photos, and ask yourself critical questions (Do I understand this figure? Could I extract needed information from this figure? Do I understand the words in this figure?).

You should know where you made errors on Tests 1 & 2. Errors on these tests are the easiest and most straightforward indicator of where you are likely to have problems on the final (and there will be several questions from Tests 1 and 2 that WILL appear on the final).

As we have mentioned before, it may also help to:

prepare for the exam by studying in a group with some of your classmates
Study Tip: When studying, "close the book, recall, then write it down." Put the PowerPoints and notes aside. Then use the practice questions below as a guide and recall everything you can in order to answer the questions without the aid of your notes. Write your answers down, or say them out loud.

Study Guides and Answer Keys

Review Study Guide for Test 1
Review Answer Keys for Test 1

Review Study Guide for Test 2
Review Answer Keys for Test 2

Content Reviews since Test 2

Marine Ecology

Content review with outline and thought questions (MS-Word document)

Biological Productivity

Content review with outline and thought questions (MS-Word document)

Material from guest lectures on wave energy and coastal zone management will be included also.

PLEASE READ THIS!!

If this is the last science course you ever take, so be it, but you should continue to increase your knowledge of science. This is important if you are to be a good citizen of the country, indeed, a good citizen of the world!

It is fairly easy to keep up with science. Go beyond watching stuff like the "Terminator Salvation" and check out the good shows such as "PBS Nova," and the many programs on the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel.

Kobe Bryant is passionate about how to do the perfect jump shot, Stephen Spielberg is passionate about acting and movie direction. Scientists are no different: they have a passion to understand how the world works. This is an extension of something that we ALL do (i.e., wonder about how the world works).

Good luck and "may the force be with you!"