下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
It might not always seem that way, especially after a night of endless homework assignments, but high school can fly by. Classes are generally a little larger, subjects are more complex, and not every student has had the same background for each subject. Teachers don’t always have the time to re-explain a topic, and worse, sometimes students don’t realize that there’s a subject they don’t fully understand. This feeling of frustration is a bit like getting to your locker and realizing that you’ve forgotten a part of the combination to open it, only there’s no science superintendent you can call to clip the lock open.
That’s why we at The Princeton Review, the leaders in test prep, have built the High School Unlocked series. We can’t guarantee that you won’t forget something along the way—nobody can—but we can set the tools for understanding science at your fingertips. That’s because this book not only covers all the basics of Biology , but it also shows how the different facets of biology work together.
The speed at which you go through this material depends on your personal needs. If you’re using this book to supplement your daily high school classes, we recommend that you stay at the pace of your class, and make a point to read chapters and answer questions in both this book and your homework. This is the most direct way to learn and retain information.
If, on the other hand, you’re using this book just to review topics, then you should begin by carefully reviewing the Goals listed at the start of each chapter and taking note of anything that seems unfamiliar or difficult. Try answering some of the example questions on your own, as you might just be a little rusty. Take as much time as you need to connect with this material. As a real test of your understanding, try teaching one of these topics to someone else.
Ultimately, there’s no “wrong” way to use this book. You wouldn’t have picked this up if you weren’t genuinely interested, so the real key is that you remain patient and give yourself as much time as you need before moving on. To aid in this, we’ve carefully designed each chapter to break down each concept in a series of consistent and helpful ways.
Each chapter begins with a clear and specific list of objectives that you should feel comfortable with by the end of the chapter. This allows you not only to assess which sections of the book you need to focus on, but also to clarify the underlying skills that each example is helping to demonstrate. Think of this sort of goal-based structure as a scavenger hunt: It’s generally more efficient to find something if you know what you’re looking for.
Along those lines, each chapter ends with an opportunity to self-assess. There’s no teacher to satisfy here, no grade to be earned. That said, you’re only hurting yourself if you skip past something. Would you really want to jump into the pool before learning how to swim? You’ve got to determine whether you feel comfortable enough with one chapter before diving deeper.
Each lesson is hands-on, filled with a wide variety of examples. You’re encouraged to step in and work on the examples on your own, and each step is clearly explained so that you can either compare techniques or establish a successful strategy for your own coursework.
This element features questions that are more complex than the previous ones in the lesson. These questions may require you to utilize a handful of concepts or methods that you have just learned. Answers and explanations appear separately on the next set of pages, allowing you to see how the knowledge that you’re developing can be adapted or focused, regardless of the context in which a question appears.
Our Key Chain sidebars operate much like your actual key chains—they add a little something so a concept is easier to grasp. These little tidbits will help you store the information in your brain so you can easily access it later. After all, it doesn’t matter how many keys you own if you can’t find them when you need them!
It can be tricky to accurately assess how well you know a subject, especially when it comes to retaining information. We recommend that you wait a day or two between completing a chapter and tackling its corresponding drill so that you have a good measure of how well you’ve absorbed its contents. These questions intentionally scale in difficulty, and in conjunction with the explanations, help you to pinpoint any remaining gaps.
For additional support, we’ve placed printable key points online. These handy tables summarize the major concepts taught in each chapter, and they serve as excellent review material.
Many of these Unlocked techniques can be applied to other subjects. If you’re planning to take the SAT or ACT, we recommend picking up a book of practice questions or tests so that you can keep those keys nice and sharp. If you’re moving on to other courses, or higher-level AP classes, remember the connective strategies that most helped you in this book. Learning how to learn is an invaluable skill, and it’s up to you to keep applying that knowledge.