Will I Survive a Biology Major?

Test Preparation AP Sciences
1

I am currently a freshman in a University, and I’m currently undecided. After exploring some of my options, I looked more into a biology major. After looking at some YouTube videos of cancer cells, understanding basic cellular functions and processes, I’ve decided that I think this is a potential career for me.

I love looking at cells and understanding their function, along with cancer and abnormal cells, bacteria, viruses, etc, all under a microscope. I also like predicting genetic traits, and understanding genes.

But I would like to have some input before a decision is finally made.

In High School, in both Chemistry and Biology courses, I excelled greatly and was top of my class. However, this was mainly due to excelling on tests, quizzes, homework assignments, and projects, and doing excellent on lab reports. Labs, however, performing them I was not the best at at all. I struggled, and I’m not the best with hands-on material. I want to improve and practice with hands on performance, but for whatever reason, I just get lost and it will probably affect my grade and study.

I want to do better, but I’m just not one of those people who just ‘gets it’, especially in a lab after a one-time go through. I need a few times, if not several.

I understand labs are a big portion of this field, and require great success. However, I like the field of study: microorganisms, cells, genetics, etc.

What should I do? How do I improve on hands-on material and understanding on how to perform a lab correctly?

Thanks!

2

You have to prepare for labs in advance. Too many students treat labs like chemistry demonstrations they may have had earlier in school or like HS where the teacher, due to lack of supplies, walks them through the experiment. They arrive with little idea of how things are going to happen, or worse, a half-baked idea and you can actually see in their faces the point at which they get lost when it doesn’t go as expected.

Review the labs in advance, including doing any calculations with different pieces of sample ‘data’ so you understand how things might be going right or wrong.

3

Try to get a job in a lab at your university, so you can get extra practice and training in addition to what you are doing in classes. If there aren’t any jobs, see if you can volunteer to help a professor with lab research. Also look for summer jobs in labs. With more experience and training, you will bet better.

If you still feel clumsy, talk to the people supervising you in these positions and ask how you compare to other students starting out. If they agree that you do worse in the lab, then stay away from dangerous lab activities (like some chemistry experiments that can blow up), and look at science majors/careers that involve these topics but not constant work in a lab, e.g., genetic counseling.

I think you’ll be able to improve though and get much better! My daughter had a summer lab position when she was 17, and one time she dropped a whole tray of experiments that all had to be re-started. She was so embarrassed. But the two scientists supervising her and the lab told her things like that happen. She asked if she was more clumsy than others, and they said no.

In fact, they told her the important thing is to admit when you’ve messed something up, so corrections can be made. They said the worst students and employees in the lab were those who would make a mistake, and either hide it or not realize it. Making a mistake, recognizing it, admitting it and taking corrective action are acceptable and expected behaviors.