Anyone Feel Like An Idiot In Lab Classes?

[Chevy Chase Fan]

I always feel like I'm the only one whose slow to figure out what we're doing and all that. I feel like a total ***** sometimes.

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[muhali3]

Yeah, I'm much better in lecture than in lab. I can understand concepts and problems well, but I'm just really slow at doing the actual procedure.

 

[UpQuark]

Same here. My problem is that I don't take the time to read the labs before hand so it takes me a while to understand the procedure. Organic sucked - 1 misreading of a compound screwed my ENTIRE 3 week synthesis...

 

[GlamDoc]

I always feel like I'm the only one whose slow to figure out what we're doing and all that. I feel like a total ***** sometimes.

Every. Single. Semester.

Even now as a senior.

 

[Tatarin1989]

I always feel like I'm the only one whose slow to figure out what we're doing and all that. I feel like a total ***** sometimes.

O..M..G Thank God there is someone like me out there. I thought I was the only ***** in a lab, having no idea wtf I am doing, until I actually do the lab report. It actually sometimes really got to me, with me starting to doubt my intelligence. But I think I was that super sensitive because the girl I had a secret crush on was also in that lab and always seemed to know what she was doing. Yeah, college, what an awesome place.

 

[apumic]

Same here. My problem is that I don't take the time to read the labs before hand so it takes me a while to understand the procedure. Organic sucked - 1 misreading of a compound screwed my ENTIRE 3 week synthesis...

This. Honestly, if I gave a ****, I'd really know what was going on, but frankly, I don't because I don't have time to spend preparing for labs properly. You do the pre-lab, write up what's necessary, and move on. I can't say I really feel like a *****, though, because I generally understand it once I'm actually in lab doing it but before lab begins, I generally know little more than what we're synthesizing and that it has something to do w/ reagents X, Y, and Z (and maybe the general mechanism from lecture -- if I'm lucky and it's something we've actually covered sufficiently).

 

[marble30]

I always feel like I'm the only one whose slow to figure out what we're doing and all that. I feel like a total ***** sometimes.

That sounds like me. I hated lab courses in undergrad so much.

 

[Chevy Chase Fan]

Great to hear. This makes me feel A LOT better. I'm literally COUNTING DOWN my labs this semester.

 

[broken tibula]

Labs can suck so hardcore--gen chem was an absolute nightmare. The lab manual was essentially a textbook and each lab would be ten to twenty pages of solid text, with directions interspersed with history lessons and background information. Impossible to follow, let alone understand.

Got to orgo, and each lab is two pages long, cookbook-style directions. I love orgo lab. 😍

 

[uclaussr]

i hated gchem lab and felt like a complete *****, a douchebag lab partner didn't help. ochem lab i loved, and had an awesome lab partner.

 

[SterlingArcher]

I used to be pretty clumsy at lab and seemed to never have that "intuition" that some people do where they never seem to **** up during lab. After working in a research lab I started to really develop the skills and thinking to make lab so much easier. I think this happens to a lot of people simply because they haven't experienced anything like a hands-on lab before college.

Now (somehow) I'm a TA for orgo lab and I'm watching other students go through the same s*** I did. I noticed that it really is just a SKILL, and while other students may seem naturally better at lab, it's probably because something in their life taught them to identify the important parts of experiments and not mess those up (maybe cooking or something). Of course you also get people who triple check even the most pointless parts of experiments just like they do with everything else in their life.😕

Don't sweat it, you'll get better and lab isn't a big part of your GPA at any school. Just go into lab, get out as quick as possible and focus on stuff that you like 👍

 

[orthomyxo]

I always feel like I'm the only one who has no damn clue what we're supposed to be doing, and I'm also a very slow worker in labs so I'm usually one of the last to leave. 😡

I actually didn't mind gen chem lab, it was kinda fun sometimes. Orgo lab is just plain boring. You heat up this crap that smells like ass blah blah blah, your percent yield is 113 and you have no idea why. The end. But IMO the worst lab of all is microbio. Everything you do is so tedious, and if you mess up one little thing you need to start over.

 

[wristbandMD]

I always feel like I'm the only one whose slow to figure out what we're doing and all that. I feel like a total ***** sometimes.

Me too. The worst part is I do take the time to read the lab. (Although, I will admit that in the last couple quarters of reading the labs I've improved substantially. I used to not read them at all.)

I always feel like the rest of the class knows some big secret about the lab that I don't. Like they have some inside information that I somehow missed.

 

[Sesom]

Luckily my girlfriend of 5 years is my lab partner in chem lab 🙂 I will be riding her coat tails all the way up to med school.

 

[TheMockTurtle]

Luckily my girlfriend of 5 years is my lab partner in chem lab 🙂 I will be riding her coat tails all the way up to med school.

I was aroused by this comment, then furious.

I'm enjoying g. chem lab so far, yes it's three hours long, but the experiments are entertaining.

 

[Astarael]

What makes it really bad is if your TAs are graduate students who don't realize that you have no reason to know what you're doing in lab. I had to miss a week of lab my senior year due to mono, and I'm pretty sure they all thought I was a *******, but the fact of the matter was that I had no exposure to this particular type of chemistry before.

Anyway, one of my best TAs told us over and over that we should really be thinking about why we are doing something in lab. It sounds like something you'd probably be doing already, but taking an extra minute or two to ask yourself, "Why am I heating this up?" or "Why does the amount of solvent I use not really matter" can really improve your level of comfort with your procedure.

 

[Procyon]

I'm like this. I'm usually among the last people to finish. And I'm always nervous I'm gonna screw up and ask the instructor questions like every two seconds, haha. More so in gen chem last year and orgo this year. They feel like Harry Potter potions class, where if I stir counterclockwise instead of clockwise, I'll destroy my experiment. But bio labs haven't been as bad, at least so far.

 

[Sesom]

I was aroused by this comment, then furious.

I'm enjoying g. chem lab so far, yes it's three hours long, but the experiments are entertaining.

I was furious because of your comment, then aroused.

 

[orthomyxo]

I'm like this. I'm usually among the last people to finish. And I'm always nervous I'm gonna screw up and ask the instructor questions like every two seconds, haha. More so in gen chem last year and orgo this year. They feel like Harry Potter potions class, where if I stir counterclockwise instead of clockwise, I'll destroy my experiment. But bio labs haven't been as bad, at least so far.

They are if you suck at lab as much as I do. The other day in microbio lab we were gram staining, and I forgot to counterstain with safranin.....all my gram negative bacteria were clear. It was a practical, so my TA came to look through my microscope and he seemed like he wanted to say "WTF did you do??" 😳

 

[integralx2]

I dont know but for me it seems I get it right away in lab. Then I am stuck explaining to people in my group what was just said 5 minutes ago :\. But , sometimes i dont know what im doing lol.

 

[Hope0913]

Great to hear. This makes me feel A LOT better. I'm literally COUNTING DOWN my labs this semester.

haha i already did 😀

there's always this group in the front that finishes way before everyone else, my goal is to one day finish before them and roll out in style 😎

 

[hiyaman]

I always feel like I'm the only one whose slow to figure out what we're doing and all that. I feel like a total ***** sometimes.

Maybe you should read the labs before coming in. That will enhance your efficiency and the amount of time the lab itself will take. You should have a pretty good idea of what you are doing that week before lab instead of figuring out what your doing during lab.

 

[StayOnTop]

Thank God for this thread, I always feel like an idiot in lab, and I was starting to doubt myself because of it.