Sometimes you have to play catch up.
In CHEM 162, the final quarter of General Chemistry, we started to get exposed to what we would see in the future. We started to look at Organic Chemistry, things like that - but what I think this class I really learned the most from my lab partner, who's name I blotted out on the work sample below to preserve their privacy.
My lab partner, lets call them Jane, had a much better fundamental understanding of the material that we were covering in lab, and also had little patience for people who struggled with it. There were many times in lab where I was stuck, trying to wrap my head around a concept or equation, and I quickly realized that Jane was there to get through lab as quickly as possible, because she already knew what was going on. Lucky me. I constantly was playing catch up, trying to get legitimate explanations out of her during lab when I was confused, and having to go to the TA for help, which only apparently made her more frustrated as she waited for me.
I learned a lot from Jane. At college, you definitely will meet people that are just intuitively quicker at what you are working on, and my time with Jane forced me to realize how to cope with it - how to use it to better your understanding. By the end of the lab series in CHEM 162, it was sort of like a contest, which one of us could and would be more prepared for lab. I poured over the lab manuals and pre-labs taking down every single aspect of the lab and doing my best to know conceptually what was going to happen before we began, just to keep up with Jane. By the end of the quarter, we were finishing these labs well before the deadlines, because it was pretty much a race.
My lab partner, lets call them Jane, had a much better fundamental understanding of the material that we were covering in lab, and also had little patience for people who struggled with it. There were many times in lab where I was stuck, trying to wrap my head around a concept or equation, and I quickly realized that Jane was there to get through lab as quickly as possible, because she already knew what was going on. Lucky me. I constantly was playing catch up, trying to get legitimate explanations out of her during lab when I was confused, and having to go to the TA for help, which only apparently made her more frustrated as she waited for me.
I learned a lot from Jane. At college, you definitely will meet people that are just intuitively quicker at what you are working on, and my time with Jane forced me to realize how to cope with it - how to use it to better your understanding. By the end of the lab series in CHEM 162, it was sort of like a contest, which one of us could and would be more prepared for lab. I poured over the lab manuals and pre-labs taking down every single aspect of the lab and doing my best to know conceptually what was going to happen before we began, just to keep up with Jane. By the end of the quarter, we were finishing these labs well before the deadlines, because it was pretty much a race.