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October 2nd, 2008

cjsmith: (Default)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 07:55 am
Got the chem lab done. Phew. Also worked a clinic shift, finished bio homework, did bio lab prep homework, finished physics homework, and even did all the chem homework for tomorrow (as I won't have the time to do it today). Wednesdays and Thursdays are my long days.

Physics quiz/exam today during lecture, followed by physics lab, bio lecture, and bio lab with a lab quiz/exam. 8:30am to 8:10pm with one break in the early afternoon. I am so glad I have a thermos.

Though the academic counselors recommended against three science lab courses at once, I had best be able to do well on this schedule, or how do I think I would EVER make it through a vet med program? This is the first calibration check along my path.
cjsmith: (Default)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 02:45 pm
Lab notebooks:
Have a separate lab notebook or make drawings and notes all over the manual?
Carbon-copied prenumbered pages or a spiral-bound notebook?
Take them home to do the writeup, or leave them locked up in the lab?
Do your work elsewhere and copy it in, or print it out and staple it in, or record every piece of data by hand directly into the notebook at the time the measurement was taken?
Strike through a mistake or recopy the page?

On every one of these questions, each of my professors insists that the ways the others do things are wrong. It's almost funny to watch them put value judgments on these answers, all the while conflicting massively with each other. At least, it would be funny if the whole mess didn't have consequences for me personally. As a student, I don't get to be self-righteous and snooty; I get to OBEY. It's dizzying trying to memorize three different protocols. Perhaps the bookstore should hand out laminated cards showing the answer key for each professor. Not the answers to the homework or quiz problems, no; the answers to their particular brand of This Is The Way Everyone Should Do Things.

As the quarter wears on, of course, we're supposed to do all these things as second nature. It's like learning to touch-type when every day you get a new keyboard layout.
Homework:
Bother to do the problems or just write enough to show you know how you WOULD do it?
Turn it in during lab, during lecture, or not at all?
Are crossouts or white-out acceptable inside a pile of calculations (because We're Learning Here) or not acceptable (because This Is College-Level Work)?

Etc., etc., etc.
Round a 5 up no matter what, or round to the evens?
Work in groups in lab (because That's The Right Way To Learn), or work alone (because That's The Right Way To Learn)?

In France, when I lived there (1989), there were three different keyboard layouts in common use. In all the computer programming offices I saw, I met not a single touch-typist. My own rapid typing branded me as a bit of a freak.