Biology, English, and Goggle

<p>I know it's bit unusual title... haha.</p>

<p>*Biology
I just finished my first year of biology as a freshman in undergrad (WashJeff). For General Biology I, I received A whereas for General Biology II, I received A-. I'm happy about both grades because I struggled with them, especially with General Biology II (see my other thread for my past..complaints :) ).
My goal is to review my biology book (8th edition by Campbell, et al) this summer to review and learn the chapters that we didn't cover, or ones that I did not have enough time to. I had to take Organic Chemistry at the same time this year (A/A-), so I ended up spending less time on Biology than what some of my peers did. Is this OK? At this point, I am not really looking for studying biology for MCAT section. I think that can wait till two-three months before MCAT. But, since biology is my weaker part of sciences (it always has been... I'm more of chemistry/math person), I want to build my foundation bit strongly. I was wondering if this was not waste of my time...I'm not working this summer anyway.</p>

<p>*English
As you can probably have guessed, I am not a native speaker. I received 640 on Verbal on SAT only because I studied for SAT. I recently finished Honors Composition, and am looking at hopefully B+ to A range (hopefully NOT B+..). Anyway, I still know that all of this mean nothing for MCAT Verbal section because it is very hard, and even the native speakers fail. So, I'm trying to read as much as possible, particularly in political science and philosophy -- two of my weakest areas. I'm just worried if I'm doing the right thing. Some of my peers at my institution (Washington and Jefferson College) say that you shouldn't worry about Verbal and focus on sciences. But, really, many fail in MCAT because of Verbal, and I am trying to prevent that by scheduling humanities and social sciences classes in my schedule (I'm Biochemistry Major) and reading as much as I can. It's just hard because the way native speakers in my school see MCAT is different than the way I perceive it (it'll be sinister... I know, especially for me).</p>

<p>*Goggle
Ha... I'm pretty clumsy at labs and I decided to sign up for lab assistant AND somehow got selected for General Biology I lab assistant. Goggle is part of my worries but I'll give bit details on my "clumsiness." I guess you can say that I am naturally more clumsy (not retarded haha) than other people. In my lab, I have worked slower than other people, and made more mistakes than other people. So, the whole idea of me working as a lab assistant seems to shock many of my peers.
But, this is something I realized yesterday while talking to my parents (I never really told them how I was in labs...ha). I wear glasses 24/7, and during the lab, I had to take them off and wear goggles. Naturally, I had to look at manual twice before I do anything, and considering that I was even slower than normal people, it probably made me even more slower. So, I wonder if wearing goggle that fits my glasses will make my situation better? Or do you think it had nothing to do with it?
My school really pushes researches/internships (probably how everyone does not do well on MCAT because they don't put much emphasis in it), and I feel that having lab assistant experience will help me. But, at the same time, I don't want to mess up extremely in the lab, and I am just asking for advices on how to be successful as a lab assistant. It's not something you see always on CC, but I'm trying to improve, and there are people here who are ten times better than me on lab to born with (yes... a sad truth).</p>

<p>P.S. I'm taking inorganic chemistry and physics next year.</p>

<p>–I wouldn’t bother studying biology this summer.
–Your peers are wrong. Focus on Verbal, even if you’re a native English speaker. Remember, the entire MCAT is a Verbal test. Two-thirds of it is a verbal test ABOUT science, but it’s first and foremost about reading comprehension.
–Being able to see helps in lab. Buy bigger googles. They should be like $5.</p>

<p>Yeah, bigger goggles are an easy solution. You can also ask around and see if you can get any glasses side shields (I had these: [Bouton</a> Clip On Side Shields - Side Shields](<a href=“http://www.abcsafetyglasses.com/mly-99700.html]Bouton”>Bouton # 99700 Clip On Safety Glass Side Shields | ABCsafetymart.com) ). I never had a lab professor or TA who had a problem with me just putting the side shields on my glasses, and I couldn’t stand wearing goggles over my glasses. The side shields look stupid, but honestly the googles aren’t exactly a fashion statement either.</p>

<p>And if you’re really hard core, I know of some people who spent a lot of time in lab who actually got prescription safety goggles. I would imagine that could be pretty expensive.</p>

<p>Gen bio lab? Not sure why you even have to wear goggles at all if you wear glasses already.</p>

<p>NCG: My school’s biology department is really goofy. They uphold all rules, some of which are good but others are just unnecessary. My dad found this goggle that fits over my glasses but it has these holes (tiny ones) for the air to move out so it doesn’t fog. Would this be a problem? I think it might but I wasn’t sure…</p>

<p>Also, at NCG (I know BDM is very smart too but I can’t remember your MCAT score): I read today that you scored MCAT of 37. What were your breakdowns? I know you took prep course, but how did you score that well? I’m just curious… I wonder if it was just xiggi’s method (practice exam after practice exam?)?</p>