with lab?

[lunalx]

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I'm an incoming freshman starting my pre-med journey this fall. Lately, I've been in a rut deciding the composition of my first year of college. While looking up the pre-reqs for some of the med schools that I'm interested in, I noticed that some medical schools require you to take Biology/Chemistry/Physics with laboratory. What exactly are labs? What do they entail? When do I take them (do I take them and the main course simultaneously)?

 

[_atlas]

Incoming freshman as well (take this with a grain of salt), from my understanding labs include hands-on experiments with write ups as you go along. Basically graded for these write-ups.

Some universities require for you to take lecture and lab simultaneously (mine).

Would probably recommend waiting for a more coherent response from someone that has actually taken one of these classes lol..

 

[littledreamer]

My lab courses were separate from my lecture courses. This was primarily to offer students flexibility in scheduling, etc. But yes, it was hands-on experiments, some lecture, and tons of write ups.

I just registered for both courses separately, and nearly everyone still took both courses concurrently. I had a unique situation and ended up splitting my physics lecture courses from my lab courses, and though not ideal, it shook out fine.

 

[DingoPingo]

check your course descriptions. see if they include lab.

for example, all of my physics/chem/bio courses had an indication that lab was included, and my course number indicated similarly (eg. 101L)

if they are separate, there might be instructions to take them together somewhere on your registration site

 

[Skinny_2017]

This is an ill-defined requirement that gets complicated by the differences between colleges.

Most colleges have a lab included in the intro biology and chemistry classes, but a minority of colleges don't. People at these minority colleges are theoretically supposed to take additional classes that have a lab component, which is a bit unfair because it adds a lot more classes and the number of hours in lab is usually 5 or 10 times higher.

Good news! Working in a research lab will satisfy the "and lab" requirement for most (but not all) MD schools, which is something I didn't realize until I actually started looking at MD school websites. Obviously, the research you do should actually be relevant, so it may only hit bio or only chem.

On the AMCAS, if you got college credit for the research, make sure you classify the class as "BIOL" or "CHEM" and then make sure the name includes the word "lab" or else append the phrase "and Lab" to the name.

 

[efle]

You should be able to glance at your college's class catalog, it will mention whether the intro sciences are "with lab" or "to be taken with partner Course X" that is the lab part. For most people you spend an hour in a big lecture hall a few times a week learning the theory, and then once every week or two you go to labs for several hours to do basic experiments (stuff like acid-base titration). Usually you're graded on lab reports you then write up, sometimes there are also exams or quizzes.

 

[tskbdmnd]

Every week you have to go to 1-3 classes where you actually have to do stuff. It sucks. But if you pay attention, it turns out that one out of every few labs will be useful.

 

[jtd2081]

The actual labs are fun. Go and learn stuff. Do the write up. Get an easy A.

 

[confidentandgood]

Some labs are included in the credit value when you register for the course. Some need to be signed up for separately.

If it is included, it's especially important to pay attention and do well because your lab grade will be factored into the overall course grade (e.g. for my Orgo class, lab was 25% of the total).

Most labs focus on write-ups and pre-lab/post-lab assignments. In some cases, your performance depends heavily on your TA.

 

[Doctor-S]

At my UG, the classroom lectures were always kept separate from the labs.

In other words, each student was required to enroll in a separate classroom lecture section + a separate lab section simultaneously. My classroom lectures were always scheduled in the morning; whereas my labs were mainly scheduled in the evening.

The classroom lectures provided the basic science foundation for the "hands-on" experiments in the labs. We were required to succefully complete written examinations to complete the lecture (e.g., quizzes, midterms and final examination). Most of the labs required written submission of "lab reports.""

Thank you.