Would it be more or less advantageous to work by myself in O. Chem lab?

[V781]

Also, would it make me look bad, in the eyes of the professor, if I requested to start working by myself?

The professor did mention at the start of the quarter the option to request to work by yourself if things weren't working out with your lab partner. I don't want to work with my lab partner anymore.

She brought a friend from the other lab section to work with us in our lab section and they've been excluding me (or so I feel).

From the start, I noticed my lab partner had turned her back on me as they worked between the two of them. They didn't communicate with me much. They did ask here and there if I could just hold something or move something.

A couple times when I noted that something should be done (from the lab instructions), they rejected it. For instance, I mentioned that we needed to add ice and the response was "uhhh..what would we need ice for.......?" as though I had sounded idiotic. It turned out we did need ice and they added it later than we were supposed to have. Or "did you rinse that out a few times to get out the last bits of the extract?" - they just shrugged it off. To add, there just isn't enough work for three people...I would get more hands on experience working by myself.

My last experiment with my partner was not so successful; our crystals were not pure (and they should have been). My partner might be blaming me for it, even though I wasn't the one that worked on that step of the experiment...

It's the first part of a 3 part series (Organic Chemistry). Would it be a reasonable move to make? Or might I suffer if I were to work alone?

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[eteshoe]

In your case it may be helpful. Nothing done in a sophomore level ochem lab can't be done by one person if need be.

 

[LikeDaniel]

I feel your pain. I'm only in Inorganic Chemistry I at the moment, but my partner (originally determined by proximity) has proven to be someone whose primary goal is to complete and leave lab asap, even if it means that the experiment was done sloppily.

My professor has made a big deal of people not being "antisocial" and working alone, but I sure wish I could at this point!

I just keep telling myself that it is good practice for when I'm leading a team as a doctor and one of the team members wants to take shortcuts. Makes it a little less nerve-grating.

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[NonTrad16]

Do you feel confident in lab (generally)? Are you sort of obviously non-trad? (Non-matriculant, older, etc)

My lab partners have definitely lacked some skill and attention to detail... If you're graded at all on partner evals, or accuracy, or you're more obviously 'different' and they don't want to work with you because they have a friend in the lab... I honestly don't see why you couldn't bail on them. All of my professors in my postbac seemed to understand my approach. "I have years of experience in the lab, I'm doing this for medical school applications, and I know what I'm doing."

If there's someone else who need a partner (there's usually a shy person, or someone from a different major, etc) maybe you could just switch to work with them? If you have experience and skill, and you think you could help someone else out, I'd sooner go that way.

If you're not graded on accuracy but process... well... human error only makes more opportunity for explanation

 

[V781]

Unfortunately, I do not have more lab experience than others in my class. I do tend to be pretty anal about precision and following directions though. Will the experiments get to the point where I will absolutely need somebody with me?

 

[ZX10R]

Unfortunately, I do not have more lab experience than others in my class. I do tend to be pretty anal about precision and following directions though. Will the experiments get to the point where I will absolutely need somebody with me?

I did 3 years of Ochem research before starting medical school and I can only think of one time I needed someone else to help me. It had to do with atmospheric pressing and nitrogen exchange because any O2 left in the flask would have killed the catalyst and made the SMs form dimers over the desired product (which still only had the yield of 5% under perfect conditions). This is way above an undergrads level of knowledge so you can ignore it.

The only thing a partner can do is make the experimental process more efficient so you get done faster. Say if your doing a column one person mixes the solvent + silica gel/alumina and the other adds/presses with air. Then during collection one person collects and the other person does TLC every 5-10ml of solvent depending on the separation. We actually weren't allowed to use partners in my school, because we were given unknowns and had to figure out what they were.