Friday, June 02, 2006
I just got done taking a practical exam for my molecular biology lab. Let me explain it to you. There are 21 stations and you have 3 minutes per station. They ask different questions that test you on the different procedures we have been doing in class. One of the station required you to mix some enzymes with substrates and then you had to measure the product produced in a special machine called a spectrophotometer. However, the solution you have made must be diluted to the correct amount so that the machine can read it. (this is the hard step) So I have got 3 minutes to mix, react, and dilute this solution. The bell went off and I started to pipette my substrate into the cuvette(test tube), but I quickly realized my hands were shaking out of control (so intense). I have to use my other hand to stop the shaking. Somehow I manage to get the substrate and enzyme all into the the tube. I then grab another pipette to dilute the solution. the TA calls out"30 seconds" it is at this moment that I realize that I don't know to what factor I am suppose to dilute. Total panic sets in and I started diluting like there was no tomorrow. As I am doing this I am hoping for a miracle that maybe what I am doing is correct. The buzzer beeps and I go on to the next station to measure my product in the machine. I put the cuvette into the proper slot and ,y number comes out on the screen. I look at the number and........... Not even close to being right. I screwed up somewhere in my diluting process. Luckily this was just one part of the test. I think I did good on the rest. Very intense.
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5 comments:
Don't get scared now, you molecular biology Geek.
Sounds like that was a difficult test. You're a smart boy. I'm sure you did just fine.
While I have never had a molecular biology class (I threw in the towel on chemistry in the fall of 1995 -- the memory of calculating molarity still gives me shudders), I can certainly relate to the phenomenon you described of having one's mind suddenly erasing under the intense pressure of a test.
It happened one time this semester on the last problem of my accounting final. I came to a problem about caculating a bond discount and the associated journal entries. I had studied hard for three days and solved probably half a dozen harder problems from the book, but suddenly I was as a newborn babe, innnocent of all worldly knoweldge of bond discount amortization. I did get he problem right -- after staring at the paper the better part of 20 minutes.
I enjoyed reading about the lab in which you were studying. Technology, science and especially mad scientists fascinate me. Are there also bubbling beakers of mysterious fluids and formaldehyde-pickled specimens lining the walls and tables of your laboratory? MWAHH HAH HA!
BTW "congratulations on your decision to attend medical skool. I wouldn't wish 8 years of skool on my worst enemy!
Sounds like a rough test, Ad. But you gotta learn to control the hand tremors! Do you think a world famous surgeon can afford to have his hands shaking like a wet dog during a case?
This summer, we're going to toughen up your nerves a bit through my patented Vortex of Mental Anguish therapy.
Here's the step by step procedure:
1) Place you in a dark room full of spiders and rats.
2) Have a strobe light flashing directly in your face.
3) Have a recording of fingernails on a chalkboard played at a deafening decible level.
4) Surround you with angry howler monkeys on leashes, tethered just out of the reach of their claws and teeth.
5) Have a ring of acquaintances hurling epithets at you, denigrating your existence and calling into question your manhood.
6) Pump the room full of the pungent odor of rotting dirty diapers.
7) Jab electrodes beneath your toenails and shock you repeatedly.
When all of that is going full blast, then I will ask you to solve complex calculus equations in your head while simultneously building a house of cards. You have 5 minutes to do both.
One mistake, one fallen card, one shake of the hands, and the howler monkeys get released.
If you can handle that, my man, then you will have nerves of steel. Molecular biology won't be such a tough test anymore.
Geez...and I thought that studying postmodernist art theory was tedious. Although come to think of it, Mark's therapy breakthrough does sound something akin to an art "happening", minus the rotting diry diaper smell (substitute it with the "aroma" of cheap wine, garlic breath and stale cigarette smoke and you'd be closer).
Addie,
Why the trembling hands? What are you going to do as a Doc when you are under stress? I can just see you examining a patient and he asks you why are you are shaking?
I'm sure you will do better in this class than your experience below might indicate.
You are a good man, Addie.
Dad
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