Science majors--EXTREMELY nervous about labs for next year...

I'm starting uni as a MPhys this September, but I'm terribly worried about labs/practical work. As much as I love it theoretically, I've only done a few labs and those were all in high school chemistry. I don't know how I'll cope if they just plop you in a lab and say "go"...any tips???

Reply 1

SlowlorisIncognito

My course wasn't physics related, but I did have lots of labs! In my experience, labs were nothing like that. In first year especially, we were given detailed instructions and there was lots of assistance on hand! For one module (microbiology related) we were expected to read up on the labs before hand- I guess if you didn't do the reading, you would end up being stuck.

However, there will be guidance and help available, and most of my first year work was done in small groups, so if you don't understand everything, you can help each other.

It's not really until you're doing your dissertation that you might face being in a lab with no-one guiding you as to what to do.

Reply 2

blackpuma137

Whew--that's quite a relief to read! I'm a bit obsessive in labs--mainly because of the aforementioned paranoia of getting something wrong--so I'm quite familiar with the idea of practically memorizing readings before labs just due to how often I go over them...

Here's to hoping my lab partner/group has done more work than I in lab! Thanks :biggrin:

Reply 3

heidigirl

Don't know about physics, but I hadn't done practical work in years when I started uni, and it was fine.

You usually get really detailed step-by-step instructions to start with and lots of help. I'm not a fan of labs-I take ages to pick things up because I suck at 'having a go'; I need to feel like I know exactly what I'm doing, and I get stuck on wanting to get every bit of the details right-but even I didn't find them too difficult and there was always help on hand if you needed it.

Reply 4

blackpuma137

Original post by heidigirl

This is pretty much exactly how I feel! I have no confidence in labs because I always feel like I don't have a clear idea of what I should be doing, but it's good to hear that someone who has a similar outlook on them found help in uni :biggrin:

Reply 5

Jippet

Lab at uni is really different to what it's like in school, for me it was anyway. It's all new to everyone so everyone's in the same position, no need to be nervous!