how do you do well in premed labs? if you hate them?!

[qualityhealth]

i don't know about ya'll but I hate my premed labs!!
I hated chem lab. and i have yet to take bio, orgo. and am taking physics lab right now.

how do you do well in them?
for some strange reason, i always get antsy and overwhelmed by them, because even AFTER the instructor goes over the directions i still have NO clue what the heck i'm doing. any suggestions on how to ace physics lab and beyond???????

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[premedmind]

i don't know about ya'll but I hate my premed labs!!
I hated chem lab. and i have yet to take bio, orgo. and am taking physics lab right now.

how do you do well in them?
for some strange reason, i always get antsy and overwhelmed by them, because even AFTER the instructor goes over the directions i still have NO clue what the heck i'm doing. any suggestions on how to ace physics lab and beyond???????

First...what's a pre-med lab?

Ok, I don't have any real advice for you. Just ask your lab partner what's going on. Chances are you both don't know, at which point you should just go ask a TA or professor.

Gen Chem lab was cake for me. Add this to this, write what you see.

 

[PreMedMommy]

Read the lab before class and partner up with someone smarter than you.

 

[mindquick]

seriously it will only get a lot worse in med school if you are already clueless in "pre-med" labs.

 

[premedmind]

Read the lab before class and partner up with someone smarter than you.

+1 to this. It's kind of like my philosophy on life nowadays.

 

[PreMedMommy]

+1 to this. It's kind of like my philosophy on life nowadays.

I wasn't even trying to be a sarcastic b****. I had trouble figuring out what was going on in labs, so I made sure to partner up with someone who got it better than me. Eventually, somewhere during each lab...I would catch on.

 

[qualityhealth]

how do you tell if someone's SMARTER than you when you don't know any one in your class,and never seen any of them before???

i'm not trying to be sarcastic. i just really want to know so I can ace it

 

[Bacchus]

Organic lab is fun, you'll enjoy it. Look forward to it.

 

[PreMedMommy]

how do you tell if someone's SMARTER than you when you don't know any one in your class,and never seen any of them before???

i'm not trying to be sarcastic. i just really want to know so I can ace it

Get to know your peers, quickly. Pay attention to other people in your class during lecture. See who asks intelligent questions. (Questions that indicate that they understand whats going on) Who has a blank stare on their face and seems completely lost.

 

[qualityhealth]

ok, i'm not tryingto be a smarta$$ but should i walk into lab a little late so i get my pick of who i think is 'smarter' than me?
i say this because when i usually go to lab on the first day, i get there early, and someone else sits next to me, and they're usually dumber than me! ugh, i hate that!

how can i overcome this??!!

 

[Depakote]

Here's my advice...

wing it through the lab. do your best to get the instruction, but the actual lab tends to be organized chaos with everybody trying to figure out WTF they're doing... usually somebody has one step figured out and is willing to help. Don't be afraid to ask the TA or your classmates.

How to get the grade? Every lab I took, the grade came down to the lab report. Just make sure you write a neat, easy to read lab report that is complete. If the data sucks, explain it. Do exactly what they ask of you on paper and you should get a good grade, even if you are technically terrible in the lab.

 

[PreMedMommy]

ok, i'm not tryingto be a smarta$$ but should i walk into lab a little late so i get my pick of who i think is 'smarter' than me?
i say this because when i usually go to lab on the first day, i get there early, and someone else sits next to me, and they're usually dumber than me! ugh, i hate that!

how can i overcome this??!!

Part of it is luck. I'm a person who shows up early, too. In my OChemI lab, I was the first person to show up, the second person claimed me. She went on and on about how she is a freelance chemist with her chemistry set at home and her mom would always buy her the wrong stuff and she's a chemistry genius and she's also a bit OCD and if she ever sees me doing something wrong, she's going to snatch it out of my hands and take over, and she tends to talk a lot and never shut up, so if she ever got on my nerves, just tell her to shut up....




Shut up.


She dropped out of the class within 3 weeks.

Maybe I'm lucky, but my university is small enough, that a lot of the classes are taken with the same people, so after a failed semester of pairing with someone horrible, you eventually figure out who does well in labs and make friends. Good friends.

 

[Gut Shot]

how do you do well in them?

It's the same approach as disimpacting an elderly, demented individual in the ER. Know what you're getting into, and of course double glove. You'll hit some hard times, and some soft, runny times, and there will be unexpected pockets of gas. Just make sure you're protected, and don't flinch if you get some spatter on you. Above all, have fun.

 

[Bacchus]

Partners for organic lab? Haha, what a thought. We all got our own hoods. I think the best thing for you to do is try to afford some comradery. Help out others and they should help you out. If you think that you're doing something wrong definitely ask either the inhouse instructor or the TAs. They are there to help and usually (>98% of the time) don't say the wrong thing.

 

[Revenant]

I've realized that success and enjoyment from labs has a lot to do with the T.A.

For example my second gen chem lab (easy) was terrible because the T.A. was insane, an inconsistent grader, lazy, unhelpful, and vague when it came to describing what he wanted.

My orgo-lab is much more enjoyable because my T.A. is excellent.

Eh...like any crappy class, suck it up and keep chuggin.

 

[cheezer]

i don't know about ya'll but I hate my premed labs!!
I hated chem lab. and i have yet to take bio, orgo. and am taking physics lab right now.

how do you do well in them?
for some strange reason, i always get antsy and overwhelmed by them, because even AFTER the instructor goes over the directions i still have NO clue what the heck i'm doing. any suggestions on how to ace physics lab and beyond???????

bathe in their glory and realize you're not alone

 

[armybound]

It's the same approach as disimpacting an elderly, demented individual in the ER. Know what you're getting into, and of course double glove. You'll hit some hard times, and some soft, runny times, and there will be unexpected pockets of gas. Just make sure you're protected, and don't flinch if you get some spatter on you. Above all, have fun.

Man, I sure do look forward to internship..

 

[mvenus929]

Organic lab is fun, you'll enjoy it. Look forward to it.

O Chem Lab made me detest chemistry.

Partners for organic lab? Haha, what a thought. We all got our own hoods.

Ditto. We all sat down on the first day, had our partners figured out and everything, and the TA (who was a big jerk) walks in and says 'you'll all have your own drawers this semester... no partners'. I made friends really quickly with the four people around me, one of whom had seen me pass out in a previous class (non-lab). Still good friends with two of them, and don't here from the other two at all. Course, I tended to be the one that everyone came to when they couldn't figure something out... I'd just basically repeat what the TA said, and they miraculously understood it...

 

[dochoov]

It's the same approach as disimpacting an elderly, demented individual in the ER. Know what you're getting into, and of course double glove. You'll hit some hard times, and some soft, runny times, and there will be unexpected pockets of gas. Just make sure you're protected, and don't flinch if you get some spatter on you. Above all, have fun.

I watched a doc disimpact an old woman once... and that was by far the most difficult thing to watch

 

[ScienceJunkie]

Organic lab is fun, you'll enjoy it. Look forward to it.

yep. once you get to make relevant stuff (plastic, pheromones , napalm), labs get bad@ass and cool.

 

[dally1025]

i really, really hated labs. during my first year or so i blew them off as pointless and let myself get b's when i could have worked a little harder and made an a. BIG mistake. my gpa might be a little higher had i actually worked a little harder and i wouldn't be in the position i am today. however, i turned it around after realizing i want to go to med school and once i place myself in that mentality i started to focus better (that and the 35 mg of adderall). i still loathed most of my science labs but it was easier to force myself to do the work for some reason. if you can, scope out the classes before signing up so you can get the best profs so it might be easier/more fun. talk to people that did well in previous semesters to see exactly what the prof wants (without cheating).

 

[Dulcina]

we didnt have partners!

I hated them too....they were RIGHT after class, and i had no time to eat, so I'd always get a headache during them =(

but besides that, I thought that material/procedures were kind of fun

 

[Gut Shot]

Man, I sure do look forward to internship..

No fear, it makes it all worthwhile when you're upper level walks by and says (in R. Lee Ermey fashion) "Good God, son, I have never seen such a thorough disimpaction! I can see my face in that rectal mucosa!"

 

[pakbabydoll]

My biology labs have pretty easy so far. So I don't know, but just go over the lab before class so you have some idea of whats what.
Our labs are not even graded; we have a 5 question quiz before every lab on former weeks material.
Good Luck