Dear K, thank you for your quick reply! Your answers helped me tremendously. :) I just have a few follow-up questions, if you don't mind: 1) Pertaining to your answer for #1, I thought you get a separate grade for Chem 1AL because the lecture doesn't have to be taken concurrently with the lab? I don't know if they changed it this year, but I'm pretty sure (and hoping) they did. Are the labs difficult and time-consuming? 2) How exactly are office hours run? Is it one-on-one between you and your professor or is it an open discussion between you, your professor, and other students who show up? I was assuming it may be a line outside your professor's office in which students enter one after another, but I may be wrong. 3) Would you recommend getting started on research for your first semester? I was planning on getting this lab position, but I'm not sure if it would be extremely time-consuming. I'm planning on taking 13 units, though. Once again, thanks for your help. I hope you're having an amazing summer, and good luck next semester~!
Dear Justin,
You're very welcome :)
1. You're right, they changed chem 1A this year with lecture being 3 units and lab being 1 unit. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. When I took chem 1A, doing well in lab added bonus points to your grade (although doing poorly deducted points) and so it helped my grade a lot. The labs themselves were not that bad, although a bit long at times- it depends largely on your GSI. Most labs won't take the full 4 hours to complete- I usually finished after 2 hours or so on average, but then again, it depends on your GSI. The experiments were rather simple in concept but sometimes difficult to obtain the 'right' results ;) I believe you only have to do around 2 formal lab right ups for 1A but i'm not too sure. The work after the lab (answering questions and discussions) only took about 1-2 hours on average. Once you start lab, you'll see how your GSI grades and how strict he/she is and can put in the effort accordingly :)
2. During office hours, the professor meets in a classroom with all the students who wish to attend at once. The professor will usually take questions from the students and lecture on it. When a midterm is coming up, they'll take questions from previous practice tests so you can see the kind of answers they're going to expect on the real exam.
3. As for lab, I would suggest waiting at least a semester before starting. I feel like it's important to get well adjusted to the environment and rigorous academics before taking on something as time-consuming as research. However, if you already secured a research position in a lab, then talk to the professor or postdoc you'll be working with to work out a schedule- a lab position is an opportunity you don't want to pass up easily and with 13 units, it shouldn't be too hard to do :)
Hope this helped! Have a great rest of the summer and see you in the fall!
-K
Dear Justin,
You're very welcome :)
1. You're right, they changed chem 1A this year with lecture being 3 units and lab being 1 unit. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. When I took chem 1A, doing well in lab added bonus points to your grade (although doing poorly deducted points) and so it helped my grade a lot. The labs themselves were not that bad, although a bit long at times- it depends largely on your GSI. Most labs won't take the full 4 hours to complete- I usually finished after 2 hours or so on average, but then again, it depends on your GSI. The experiments were rather simple in concept but sometimes difficult to obtain the 'right' results ;) I believe you only have to do around 2 formal lab right ups for 1A but i'm not too sure. The work after the lab (answering questions and discussions) only took about 1-2 hours on average. Once you start lab, you'll see how your GSI grades and how strict he/she is and can put in the effort accordingly :)
2. During office hours, the professor meets in a classroom with all the students who wish to attend at once. The professor will usually take questions from the students and lecture on it. When a midterm is coming up, they'll take questions from previous practice tests so you can see the kind of answers they're going to expect on the real exam.
3. As for lab, I would suggest waiting at least a semester before starting. I feel like it's important to get well adjusted to the environment and rigorous academics before taking on something as time-consuming as research. However, if you already secured a research position in a lab, then talk to the professor or postdoc you'll be working with to work out a schedule- a lab position is an opportunity you don't want to pass up easily and with 13 units, it shouldn't be too hard to do :)
Hope this helped! Have a great rest of the summer and see you in the fall!
-K
