<p>Can some explain labs in college? is it a different class? Is there one every week?</p>
<p>Different schools (and even different departments) might work different ways, but generally you meet once a week from 2-4 hours. Sometimes it's a separate class with a separate grade (in which case you are probably taking one three-hour lecture and one one-hour lab), and sometimes your grade from the lab is factored into your lecture grade (in which case you're probably registered for one four-hour class with a lab).</p>
<p>so it alll depends on the school?</p>
<p>Most labs work on a 1 credit hour to 3 hours in lab ratio. In other words, for every 3 hours in lab per week, you get 1 credit.</p>
<p>Most science classes at semester-based schools (as opposed to quarter-based) that have an attached lab are 4 credits. 3 credits for the 3 hours of lecture per week, plus 1 credit for one 3-hour lab per week.</p>
<p>Other classes might have a totally separate lab component like ginnyvere mentioned. My organic chem lab was structured this way. Organic lab was itself a 3-credit class. 1 hour of lecture per week, and two 3-hour lab periods per week.</p>
<p>My daughter had classes last year (chem,bio,zoo) that were 4 or in one case 5 credit hour classes where the lab was included in the credit hours but was a different session to the lecture classes. At her large university the lectures were 150+ students while the labs were smaller groups of @ 20. Usually the labs were run by TAs which meant some lab tests and also grading varied enormously depending on the TA you got. Lab work was mostly done in pairs or groups of up to 4 which worked well in most classes where she chose her lab partner but was a nightmare in one class where where she was assigned a group and ended up with a couple of real duds (who fortunately dropped the class half way - but she was really frustrated for a while.). </p>
<p>I know the coming year she has micro and orgo and the labs are actually separate classes you sign up for. As far as I recall her freshman classes were 1 lab session of around 3 hours each week (per subject) - I think the micro and orgo are going to be 2 lab sessions a week per subject.</p>
<p>So it varies from school to school and from class to class.</p>