"Shallow Thinking" Mistakes on the First Midterm

After reading all of the comments submitted to the BAC and talking to many students about the exam, it is clear that not all of you have achieved the "deep" level of mastery of material required to succeed in BIOL 1404, your upper division biology courses, and ultimately in graduate or professional school. Fortunately, BIOL 1404 is an introductory course and you have just taken the first of four midterms in the course so you still have a long way to go in your academic career. I urge you to take a look at your exam to see whether you are convinced that you study techniques are allowing you to gain the deeper level of understanding required for success in this class or whether you are merely obtaining a shallow level of understanding that fools you into thinking that you understand the material well when in fact you don't!

I would like to look at three questions from the exam where students with apparently shallow levels of understanding about the material chose the wrong answer. The correct answer for each question is shown in bold.

Example 1
Male fiddler crabs from Australia have one small claw and one giant claw. They wave their giant claws to get the attention of females. These giant claws are so large that moving them requires a significant input of energy and their movement may attract the attention of nearby predators. Female fiddler crabs are attracted to males with a faster waving rate, males that wave more than other males, and males with bigger claws (size matters). Which of the following hypotheses best explains selection for large claws in male fiddler crabs?
(a) the sexy sons hypothesis
(b) female choice
(c) the handicap principle
(d) male-male competition
(e) altruism

This question is clearly asking why females choose a particular mate, so you know that this question is about female choice. Because nothing in the questions suggests that the large claw show the male is better at finding food, resisting disease, etc. then then we obviously need to think about the sexy sons hypothesis and the handicap principle. A "shallow thinking" student might read that the females prefer males with large claws and immediately consider sexy sons hypothesis. A "deeper thinking" student would think "both the sexy sons hypothesis and the handicap principle are hypotheses to explain why males prefer mates with extreme traits, thus the fact that the female chooses the male with largest claw does not tell me anything about why the female is making the choice. After carefully reviewing the question the would notice that producing the claw requires a large investment in resources and waving the claw attracts the attention of predators and thus increases their predation risk. Thus, they would conclude that the large claws act as a "handicap" making (c) the handicap principle the best answer."

Example 2
Which of the following are true of populations at their carrying capacity?
(a) B/N = d
(b) r = 0
(c) dN/dt = 0
(d) b and c are true
(e) a, b, and c are true

A "shallow thinking" student might look at answer (a) and think "I memorized that b = B/N" so answer a is wrong and I will not consider it further" leading them to choose answer (d). A "deeper thinking" student would think about the context of the questions. "I know that the carrying capacity is the population size at which the population growth rate equals zero. What is true then?" When considering answer (a) they would think "I know that per capita birth rates equal per capita death rates when the population growth rate equals zeros. Because B/N is the formula for calculating the per capita death rate, it is true that B/N = d when populations are at the carrying capacity so answer (a) is correct. Thus, the best answer is option (e).

Example 3
Individuals reproducing asexually
(a) create gametes by the process of mitosis
(b) are genetically identical to their offspring
(c) pass on half as many genes to their offspring as individuals reproducing sexually
(d) a and b
(e) none of the above

A "shallow thinking" student will remember that mitosis is the process associated with asexual reproduction and thus add answer (a) to their list of answers to consider. A "deeper thinking" student recognizes that although it is true that mitosis is the genetic mechanism involved in asexual reproduction, mitosis does not produce gametes! Gametes are only produced by meiosis and only used in sexual reproduction so they would know that answer (a) is incorrect".

Final Thoughts
If you find yourself consistently making the same mistakes as the "shallow thinking" student then that suggests that you have room for improvement in both your test taking and studying styles.

When you try to answer a question in the multiple choice exam, first I advise you to read the question and then, before looking at the answer choices, take a minute to think about what you know about the subject. Doing this will give you some idea of the information that you should be looking for in the answer choices.

It is very important to realize that just because a potential answer contains a true statement, that does not mean that the true statement is part of the "best answer". For example, it is true that Tommy Tuberville is the Head Football Coach at Texas Tech, but it does not mean that "(a) Tommy Tuberville coaches football at Texas Tech" is a possible part of the best answer the the question "What color is a mitochondria?" Although this might sound like a silly example, it is quite common for "shallow thinking" students to make answer choices that are almost as inappropriate on multiple choice exams.

When teachers write tests their goal is to distinguish between students with a deep and shallow level of understanding. Thus, they often include an answer that they know will appeal to students with shallow understanding yet be rejected by students with deep understanding. Some students claim that this is a teacher trying to be "tricky", but instead it is the teacher trying to identify and reward students with a deep understanding of the material.

If you have not watched the series of videos that are listed in the "Improving Your Study Techniques" on this blog, then I highly encourage you to do so. To be successful in the biological sciences you will have to develop deeper study skills. If the way that you have been studying in the past is not working then NOW is the time to try something new. This video makes good suggestions so give some of them a try.

I also urge everyone to take advantage of the great outside of class learning opportunities offered by BIOL 1404. I think that Jeffrey and Suzanne are doing a great job with SI. I don't think either Jeffrey or Suzanne have had formal educational training, but they are able to come up with activities to help you learn the material because those are the same techniques they have found to help them learn the material. Pay attention in SI to how Jeffrey and Suzanne are trying to get you to think about the material in addition to trying to learn the concepts. Once you learn some more effective study techniques you can apply them to all of your classes and should should find that your study time will become more efficient and effective.

Also please come to my Goup Office hours, visit me during my regularly scheduled office hours, or make an appointment to come and see me. The first midterm represents only 100 points out of a very large total so there are a lot more points to earn in the future and many opportunities to improve your performance. Good luck!!