Salaam all,
This session's article seems very informative and the concepts are presented visually, summarised into key points where necessary and some photographs as well as tables hav been included where necessary to support ur understanding. I think u all will hav fun studying the article.
I suggest read it a couple of times first to allow it to sink in. Get two copies of the article.
If English is not ur first language and u do not understand the meanings of any word(s) within the article, do find out what the word(s) mean. They might be barriers to ur understanding of the article.
Find out what areas of the ur A/L spec r woven into the article and do not forget to revise those concepts thoroughly along with any other concepts that seem relevant.
Use highlighters to highlight key concepts.
Read the article frequently. You might not understand everything on the article after reading it for the first time. So do read it frequently and try to find links to concepts u already know. You might also understand a new thing u might not hav before everytime u read it.
Use google and wikipedia to get more information on unfamiliar contexts mentioned frequently in the article. This might not be asked for in ur exam but this might help u to link ur A/L concepts in the context of the article.
Remember, this is a scientific article so make sure u can explain the facts within the article using ur A/L knowledge and concepts where possible. You might also need to use knowledge and concepts from more than one specification unit to explain ideas.
Learn any relevant GCE Biology definitions and be strict with urself when u do so.
Summarise the article under headings and sub-headings to demonstrate to yourself how well u hav understood the scientific content of the article. Moreover, this will force u to bring ideas given in different parts of the article under one sub-heading using bullet-pointed lists.
The last but the most important one - UNDERSTAND, UNDERSTAND, UNDERSTAND. If u do not understand the scientific article and simply read it for the sake of reading it or rely on ur teachers fully to help u understand it, then it won't work. Once u understand it, u can ask ur teacher to give u questions for practice. But understand it for urself frst.
P.S. This article seems to be linked more strongly to Topic 8 of Unit 5. Do not forget to learn the ethical issues related to experimenting on animals as well as the main imaging techniques used to diagnose brain disorders, tumours and to identify the main location and extent of damage caused to the brain due to strokes, injuries etc.
