{"id":13317,"date":"2012-09-11T18:07:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T22:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=13317"},"modified":"2014-09-09T10:05:17","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T14:05:17","slug":"its-3-am-and-im-doing-my-lab-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2012\/09\/11\/its-3-am-and-im-doing-my-lab-report\/","title":{"rendered":"“it’s 3 am and I’m doing my lab report.”"},"content":{"rendered":"Sounds like a great beginning to a Taylor Swift<\/a> song doesn't it? I think so.\r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nIf you're in first year life science, engineering or any kind of science -- you will have to deal with labs. What are labs? Well, think back to Grade 11, when Rebecca Black<\/a> was a thing and glee<\/a> was still relevant -- it's basically the practical part of a science course where you perform experiments. It's supposed to be fun, however most of the time, it's a stressful exercise. From trying to finish your lab on time, to making sure you don't blow up, to staring at your lab report at 3 AM. \u00a0Since you are told that university is synonymous with stress, you can expect that the stressful aspect of labs don't go away. \u00a0But I have some tips to make them more awesome and suck less.\r\n\r\n1) \u00a0Prepare early.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAlthough most first year courses (I can't speak for the Engineering or Physics courses) do not require formal lab reports, they do require a fair amount of effort for a good mark. Therefore, it's absolutely essentially that you prepare as early as you can, I'd say about a week earlier. If you're super swamped, then two weeks earlier. You might say cool beans<\/a> bro and then forget about this. Here's Dumbledore shaking his head in shame.\r\n\r\n\"\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nOkay, now that I've burned that image into your neurons, pay attention. \u00a0Labs require a lot of preparation and this is not just essential for a good grade, it's essential for you knowing what you're doing during the lab and it's essential that you know what you're doing, so that you don't dip your hands in hydrochloric acid (ie: to keep you and your classmates safe).\r\n\r\n