How to Study Genetics

Genetics is a field that is founded on the fundamental properties of DNA and molecular replication. It expands to incorporate concepts of inheritance and molecular variation in the genome. Students must understand these ideas, recognize unique patterns, and be able to deal with some minor calculations to succeed in a genetics course. Try these study strategies and tips to help you learn how to study genetics.

Study Tip #1 - The basics are extremely important.

Genetics is a course that progresses from a solid basic foundation of concepts about DNA and reproduction. Most problems and questions you come across in genetics will relate back to the fundamental properties of DNA and chromosome mechanics. For example, you must know how mitosis and meiosis work before you can understand when in it malfunctions, like in the case of non-disjunction.

Study Tip #2 - Write out the pedigrees.

Do this for every mode of inheritance you must study. Get yourself a small dry erase board to practice this until you can write them out from memory. Most importantly, you should know why certain traits or disorders present in this pattern and keep in mind the percentages of offspring affected.

Study Tip #3 - Practice the population and inheritance problems.

These questions already contain the information you need to solve them. Understand the concept first, but to reach the correct anwser you should practice working with the numbers and deriving the ratios from the question stem as frequently as possible.

Study Tip #4 - Make charts for the genetic disorders.

Usually it is difficult to define a clear relationship between the faulty genetic process and its clinical manifestations. List the disorders in the rows and make columns for the genotype, appearance, symptoms, treatment, mode of inheritance, and the genetic mechanism. Not only does this condense the information, but it makes it easy to compare the disorders as you study them.

Study Tip #5 - Read the question very carefully.

Keep an eye out for problems that tell you a trait is lethal to the organism in its homozygous recessive form. If a question presents with a couple and asks about the genotypes of their offspring, you can assume that none of the living children are homozygous for the gene (otherwise they would not be alive).