Hey guys,

I was just wondering which labs are harder, BIO 1A03, or CHEM 1A03

at the moment, i have both of those labs right after bio lectures (different days of course)

i might be able to move one of those labs over to another day where I would have more time for prep, pre-labs, etc.

I'm tempted to move the chem lab, because even though its EOW, first year chem is supposed to be harder than bio, or so i've heard, so the more i can focus on a harder course, the better

on the flip side, if i move the bio lab, then ill only have a case of "lecture, followed by lab" on alternating weeks, since chem labs are EOW, but then i'll be going into EVERY chem lab right after a bio lecture

what do you think? which one should i switch? i think it all boils down to which one is harder/needs more time

thanks in advance

Originally Posted by waldo92

Hey guys,

I was just wondering which labs are harder, BIO 1A03, or CHEM 1A03

at the moment, i have both of those labs right after bio lectures (different days of course)

i might be able to move one of those labs over to another day where I would have more time for prep, pre-labs, etc.

I'm tempted to move the chem lab, because even though its EOW, first year chem is supposed to be harder than bio, or so i've heard, so the more i can focus on a harder course, the better

on the flip side, if i move the bio lab, then ill only have a case of "lecture, followed by lab" on alternating weeks, since chem labs are EOW, but then i'll be going into EVERY chem lab right after a bio lecture

what do you think? which one should i switch? i think it all boils down to which one is harder/needs more time

thanks in advance

Unless they've added 4-5 labs into the course, bio 1A03 also has labs EOW. I know it doesn't say it on the timetable, but when I took it the labs were every other week and it seems unlikely (though not impossible) that they doubled the number of labs. First-year bio and chem labs are expensive, and a bajillion people take these courses, so I doubt they'd have the money to even develop them, let alone run them every week.

So, assuming they're both EOW, I found that I liked looking over chem right before the lab much more than I did for bio. Maybe it's because I had bio 1A03 labs at 8:30am, but I didn't feel the need to look things over right before and I wasn't rushing to do the prelab (it was enough work that I always had it done ahead of time). For chem, there's always people comparing prelab questions before the lab and making last-minute changes to their prelabs, and I prefer to look over the procedure beforehand. So, based on my experience, I'd move the chem lab.

I would also move the chem lab.

Chem Prelab: A lot of rewording of the procedures (It wasn't enforced in my year but in second year it was, so I'm not sure about it any more) and a coupe questions that you have to answer. Labs are more complicated in terms of procedures and types of actions you have to do.

Bio Prelab: Basically just rewording, I don't remember any prelab questions. Lab is a lot simpler, multiple repetitive simple actions.

So Chem will be the one you want to change because it's always good to have the procedures fresh in your mind and answer/check the prelab questions before lab.

i cant believe im saying this but i found the chem labs much easier than the bio labs n i freaking love bio. Ijust found the bio ones boring and useless, like writign oout all those procedures n for nothing. Chem was handed in at the end of class , which was also bomb

Originally Posted by MCHEDDENITE

i cant believe im saying this but i found the chem labs much easier than the bio labs n i freaking love bio. Ijust found the bio ones boring and useless, like writign oout all those procedures n for nothing. Chem was handed in at the end of class , which was also bomb

The reason they make you write all those procedures is so that you can get practice writing a proper lab. It's very useful if you plan on doing a thesis in biology later on since you have to keep notes in your lab book. It's a very important part of your research. You'll be using that information to write your journal article and I'm sure the professors and doctors that you defend your thesis against will have read it.

A normal science student should be able to pick up your lab book and be able to do the same experiment you did.

Practice is something that all science students should be doing and it's really lacking in the faculty. They enforced it for 1 of my 5 bio classes last year.

Originally Posted by jhan523

The reason they make you write all those procedures is so that you can get practice writing a proper lab. It's very useful if you plan on doing a thesis in biology later on since you have to keep notes in your lab book. It's a very important part of your research. You'll be using that information to write your journal article and I'm sure the professors and doctors that you defend your thesis against will have read it.

A normal science student should be able to pick up your lab book and be able to do the same experiment you did.

Practice is something that all science students should be doing and it's really lacking in the faculty. They enforced it for 1 of my 5 bio classes last year.

Depends how they enforce it, though. Like, in orgo last year, they had us write a summary. In bio, it was pretty much copying out the instructions, which is pointless since you're allowed to have the lab manual with you and didn't give any practise with actual lab book skills because you just mindlessly copied it out with a bit of summarizing.
I think there should be more consistency between departments--it's very hard to develop good lab skills when each class requires something different.

Originally Posted by nerual

Depends how they enforce it, though. Like, in orgo last year, they had us write a summary. In bio, it was pretty much copying out the instructions, which is pointless since you're allowed to have the lab manual with you and didn't give any practise with actual lab book skills because you just mindlessly copied it out with a bit of summarizing.
I think there should be more consistency between departments--it's very hard to develop good lab skills when each class requires something different.

You were allowed to use your lab manual in organic chemistry too. I've used it before, although my instructions were a lot shorter so I opted for that.

I don't every remember copying out the instructions for Biology. In fact they told us it was against the rules and if you copied it you were deducted marks. I always summarized and my instructions were shorter than the lab manual. I also opted using my lab book instead of the lab manual in this course.

I agree, consistency is the best thing to do. There is even inconsistency in the biology department. As I mentioned, only 1 of my 5 biology courses required writing in the lab book. They should either the lab book required for all courses or have an entire course on how to write a proper lab.