Anyone else terrified by labs/practicals? I'm in my 3rd…
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Anyone else terrified by labs/practicals?
I'm in my 3rd year now, and I am absolutely terrified of doing labs.
In my uni, you get a wall of text that tells you how to do the experiment, and do the experiment according to the instructions contained, and write everything about how I've done the experiment in an empty notebook. It's so frustrating for me because it takes so long to understand the text with barely any pictures, trying to understand what is going on, and in the instructions are the names of parts of the measuring equipment or the apparatus that I have yet to see in person. Googling only makes things worse because usually Google comes up with the instructions manual which is just the errors and input/output max/min or other technical details.
Even if I understand how the equipment works in principle as described, on the day of the lab I would stare at the equipment and struggle to find the power button and the controls. I might unintentionally undo the settings or the equipment might break down, or more frequently can't remember what or how to do a specific setting because I've never seen anything like the machine in front of me before and there's so much to remember in a lab where we have to finish within the allotted time or we'll fail. I'd ask the TAs (most likely another clueless PhD student seeing the experiment for the first time) and they'd usually just fiddle the machine for me, whereas their explanation will often go over my head and they'll funnel me to the next part of the experiment in the interests of time.
I also hate how arbitrary the marking is. There's a limited number of TAs and technicians, so at the end of the day when everyone is scrambling to get marked off, those who finish early (often also who had time to do the extra parts) manage to ask for lenient TAs, while those like me often get the harsh ones. Many TAs have their own opinions, and put emphasis on certain aspects of the experiment which they think are the key essence of the experiment, so if you don't focus on what they want to hear, they often mark you down significantly thinking you didn't understand the whole thing. Someone who managed to do a lot of error analysis on an experiment, but didn't have just enough drawings in their notebook might be marked up by one TA who loves error analysis, and marked down by another that thinks pictures are worth a lot of points. I rarely get more than 80% even when putting my 100% while others that struggle less are making 100%'s and leaving early.
I've never seen anything more complicated than a microscope before coming to university, even Arduinos scare me. I feel like a grandma afraid of using an ATM, because it has a 30s expiry timer that will eat up your money if you don't do certain things in that timeframe, and it's putting me off more from doing anything that has to do with experiments.
Can anyone relate?
#science
source
I'm in my 3rd year now, and I am absolutely terrified of doing labs.
In my uni, you get a wall of text that tells you how to do the experiment, and do the experiment according to the instructions contained, and write everything about how I've done the experiment in an empty notebook. It's so frustrating for me because it takes so long to understand the text with barely any pictures, trying to understand what is going on, and in the instructions are the names of parts of the measuring equipment or the apparatus that I have yet to see in person. Googling only makes things worse because usually Google comes up with the instructions manual which is just the errors and input/output max/min or other technical details.
Even if I understand how the equipment works in principle as described, on the day of the lab I would stare at the equipment and struggle to find the power button and the controls. I might unintentionally undo the settings or the equipment might break down, or more frequently can't remember what or how to do a specific setting because I've never seen anything like the machine in front of me before and there's so much to remember in a lab where we have to finish within the allotted time or we'll fail. I'd ask the TAs (most likely another clueless PhD student seeing the experiment for the first time) and they'd usually just fiddle the machine for me, whereas their explanation will often go over my head and they'll funnel me to the next part of the experiment in the interests of time.
I also hate how arbitrary the marking is. There's a limited number of TAs and technicians, so at the end of the day when everyone is scrambling to get marked off, those who finish early (often also who had time to do the extra parts) manage to ask for lenient TAs, while those like me often get the harsh ones. Many TAs have their own opinions, and put emphasis on certain aspects of the experiment which they think are the key essence of the experiment, so if you don't focus on what they want to hear, they often mark you down significantly thinking you didn't understand the whole thing. Someone who managed to do a lot of error analysis on an experiment, but didn't have just enough drawings in their notebook might be marked up by one TA who loves error analysis, and marked down by another that thinks pictures are worth a lot of points. I rarely get more than 80% even when putting my 100% while others that struggle less are making 100%'s and leaving early.
I've never seen anything more complicated than a microscope before coming to university, even Arduinos scare me. I feel like a grandma afraid of using an ATM, because it has a 30s expiry timer that will eat up your money if you don't do certain things in that timeframe, and it's putting me off more from doing anything that has to do with experiments.
Can anyone relate?
#science
source
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