Being good at research

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Hi,

I'm a college sophomore doing research (immunology, pathology) for about 8h/week. I started a couple days ago and I don't think I'm any good at it so I was wondering how to become. How not waste the time of the PI and the other people training me? How can I innovate? Also, time wise, when should I start to be independent? How to generally behave?

I already asked this questions in the Pre-Medical Allopathic (MD) forum but I'll try here to. Thanks a lot.

Originally Posted by Mnbvcxz

Hi,

I'm a college sophomore doing research (immunology, pathology) for about 8h/week. I started a couple days ago and I don't think I'm any good at it so I was wondering how to become. How not waste the time of the PI and the other people training me? How can I innovate? Also, time wise, when should I start to be independent? How to generally behave?

I already asked this questions in the Pre-Medical Allopathic (MD) forum but I'll try here to. Thanks a lot.

Hi Mnb Glad to see that you are taking time to pursue research!
It is difficult to do well in research if you are not interested in the material, so I would definitely suggest you make sure that you are interested in the topic you are researching.
I think that "wasting the PIs time" depends on what you are doing. It is really good to ask questions! And make mental note of things that are important. I am definitely a question-asker in my lab, because I would rather get things right than to not ask questions because I'm scared of how stupid I'll look. If I don't know where the damn printer paper is, I'll ask!
You should be independent when you feel comfortable in the lab! You gain independence the more experienced you are. And that just takes time.

I started a couple days ago and I don't think I'm any good at it so I was wondering how to become. How not waste the time of the PI and the other people training me? How can I innovate? Also, time wise, when should I start to be independent?

Give yourself time! You're learning lots of new techniques; it's going to take a little while to master them.

I worked for 2.5 years in a neurosurgery lab. It took me a little while before I really felt confident with the procedures. But with each batch of surgeries, I got better. About a year in, I felt truly confident training other students in the techniques and troubleshooting any problems. Now I'm applying for lab jobs in other related areas of research. I expect that I'll need to learn some new techniques and that it will again take some time for me to master them. (You'll notice I'm not giving a specific time frame. That's because it depends on the person/the difficulty of the technique(s)/etc.)

Enjoy the learning experience. Ask questions. Once you feel confident with the techniques, you'll be able to help innovate -- and more importantly you'll have a lot more fun!

Thank you! I'm having a great time in the lab.