Lab Classes

<p>What should I expect from a lab class? I'm taking a biology class in the fall (first semester in college). It has a three hour lab. Do people get partners or is it solo work? Are there lab journals or assignments that come with the lab?</p>

<p>Every school is different.</p>

<p>For the most part, intro bio labs at all schools are ridiculously easy.<br>
At my school, some work is done in groups of 4, some in groups of 2, and some individually. But if you’re having a problem, it’s not an issue to ask for help.</p>

<p>We had lab reports, but they too were also pretty simplistic. The class, on the other hand, had exam averages in the 50s/60s…</p>

<p>Pretty similar set up to intro bio class at my school. The lab section for sure was the easiest. The lab is usually where everyone brings their grade up…</p>

<p>Yeah, our bio groups were also set up as tables of four. We would just follow along with whatever lab setup there was. There wasn’t really any written work we had to do- our lab grades were based on our quizzes and tests. Which were hell. Mostly because I always forgot to study for quizzes…or I studied something completely different than what turned out to be what the quiz was. You’ll learn your professor’s teaching methods, though, and learn what’s expected of you.</p>

<p>Labs really differ between schools and departments. My bio labs have all been ridiculously easy: we work in pairs or groups of 4-6 and do really easy assignments. The hardest part was designing our own research experience and writing a paper on it, and that was only hard because my partner didn’t lift a finger and it was time-consuming. Otherwise, most of what we did was computer work with simple programs.</p>

<p>However, my chemistry lab was miserable. Weekly tests, designing all of our own experiments without much guidance or knowing how to use most of the equipment. I think all the sections averaged a D- or something insanely low.</p>