<p>So Im sitting in Organic chemistry lab on the first day and it just came to me that I had never had a chem lab. Not even in high school. Due to my particular type of engineering major, I needed O Chem lab or some convoluted lab course at my school which covers gen chem, o chem, and p chem all in one lab course. So anyway, I get ever so nervous to actually get started that I nearly just walked out. Somehow I found the courage to say and good thing I did! I was able to basically do everything that everyone else was able to do and well. I actually enjoyed myself alot!</p>
<p>So I pose this question, what really is the relevance of a Gen Chem lab?</p>
<p>as long as you understand the theory behind gen chem, you’ll be fine. The main goal of gen chem lab was to introduce you to lab techniques.</p>
<p>Depends on how good the layout of the manual is. In my school, the instructions are incomplete, that is they miss out some steps and expect you to get know it becuase it is “common sense”.</p>
<p>You will most likely have questions (after lab) that you have to do. The thing about chem labs is that the lab manual will help you answer 60% of the questions and the rest you have to google it yourselves</p>
<p>Yes I’m starting to see that it helps with understanding lab techniques, but I feel that I’m pretty much learning that in this lab since. Its really enjoyable, although I’m not a fan of trying to interpret IRs and our equipment is somewhat defective and the fact that the lab is 3 days a week for 4 hours, 4 weeks, and we only do a total of 5 labs.</p>