Hey guys! So I was wondering if any upper years could help me figure out what this is going to be like and what sort of things i should list in my lab notebook? Is including a lot of the theory behind a lab a good idea? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated .

Originally Posted by shawafo

Hey guys! So I was wondering if any upper years could help me figure out what this is going to be like and what sort of things i should list in my lab notebook? Is including a lot of the theory behind a lab a good idea? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated .

I read over all the lab instructions and made sure I knew what we did in each lab and the theory behind it.

The day of the lab exam I had an empty notebook. I copied out (word-for word) every single lab manual posted on avenue while skipping over the details I knew. I then wrote out an example of each type of calculation and made sure I knew how to do them and understood what they meant.

This worked extremely well for me but I did have a fairly good grasp of the theory behind each lab so maybe it won't be as effective for you. This is the best way to ensure you have everything in your book just in case they ask you a question that involves nothing but regurgitation (there were definitely a few, can't remember exactly how many).

you lab book should be:
- neat and organized, no loose papers, no scibbleing or minimal, and have it nicely sectioned (of course this is done during and throughout the labs and is part of being a good scientist...sectioned as in hyp, purp, method, results, anaylysis etc.)
- there will be a lot of info in your prelab, when doing an intro or prelab in your lab book include the info from the prelab manuals or w.e you are given
-take pictures its easer to understand them and get info out of them than having to read words (also there are a lot of diagrams and pics that come up in prelab manuals, cut and paste into book much easier than writing it out and having to read through it later during test) = pic tells a thousand words
- write down all materials that you use, every single one of them.
- most stuff on the test will be general things, things which everyone in the class should expect to see. i.e what color did/should that bacteria have turned in response to that thing, what was the shape of that invertibrate you saw under the microscope, etc. so you can plan you lab book out based on that
- be a good scientist and record all obervations, data and anything esle you feel is relevant, sure it may not help you on thetest necesarrly but it is good practise


and thata ll i can think of this late at night sorry for the terible grammer and spelling not going to correct it this late cus till just turn out worse

Don't forget to write down things such as model numbers for your materials (if they gave them to you in the manual). They actually have a couple of questions about that.

Originally Posted by justinsftw

Don't forget to write down things such as model numbers for your materials (if they gave them to you in the manual). They actually have a couple of questions about that.

Really? We never got any questions about those at all 2 years ago :/..

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Really? We never got any questions about those at all 2 years ago :/..

I remember having a question on it 3 years ago. We had to have model numbers in our lab books anyway, every lab they gave us a chart/table with information to fill out about equipment. If they don't do that anymore then I doubt they'll ask a question about it.

There was also a question about the number or the letter on the antibiotic pill in one of the experiments...so write down every little detail

Originally Posted by jhan523

I remember having a question on it 3 years ago. We had to have model numbers in our lab books anyway, every lab they gave us a chart/table with information to fill out about equipment. If they don't do that anymore then I doubt they'll ask a question about it.

We still have em.