01.14.16 4/100 Days Of Productivity

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hey I'm a rising junior and I really want to go to grad school right after I graduate. I wanna do research but I'm not sure of the exact field yet. I know I like molecular biology and genetics and the current lab I'm in works on developmental biology and that's pretty interesting to me too. Anyway I just wanted some advice. When do you think would be a good time to take the GRE? Also how did you choose a program?

Hi there! Aahhh I’m so glad to hear you have a plan for grad school! one of us! one of us!

That’s ok that you don’t know exactly what you want to study. Many schools offer degrees in just biology, with more specific tracks depending on your interests and research (for example, Boston University has a PhD in Biology with tracks in Cell & Molecular Biology; Neurobiology; and Ecology, Behavior, Evolution, & Marine Biology). You can often determine your tracks or research focus after being accepted and going through a few lab rotations. Also keep in mind that it is absolutely ok to have undergrad research experience in a different focus than your graduate school dissertation project. No one expects you to find your calling in the first lab you work in. The research experiences garnered before grad school are more so to show you know what you’re getting yourself into (ie. the specific physical, mental, and emotional demands of laboratory research). 

If you’re going for a PhD, you’ll have a chance to rotate through 3 or 4 labs before deciding on a specific research focus. Like you can be in a Biology PhD program, but your research could be on developmental biology. If you’re going for a Masters however, oftentimes you will have to pick a lab from the get-go (or even before the university accepts you). 

Lots of PhD programs are doing “umbrella acceptance programs”. You apply to and get accepted into an umbrella biology program, which is comprised of multiple departments that specialize in different tracks (eg. Mol & Cell Bio, Pharmacology, Cancer Biology, etc), and after your lab rotations and first round of classes, you choose a home department (and dissertation lab) in the Spring. Here’s an example of the umbrella biology program from the University of Arizona that I applied for because I was undecided between choosing Immunobiology and Cancer Biology (the latter being what I ultimately chose after rotations and the first semester of classes). 

As for the general concept of choosing a program (aside from these umbrella programs, which are fantastic imo), it’s going to take a lot of research (online and in-person) to see what’s out there and what ultimately piques your interest. It may sometimes boil down to a single lab you are absolutely enamored by. I ultimately settled on Cancer Biology at my university because a) it’s super fascinating, b) good job prospects in industry companies like Roche (I do not plan on staying in academia), and c) I absolutely loved the program–the research, the people and culture, the resources, and the funding (philanthropists looooove donating to cancer research, which the fairness of is a discussion for another day). 

Lastly, keep in mind that science is extremely interdisciplinary. Just because you choose to study developmental biology during grad school doesn’t mean you’ll never get another chance to do research in molecular biology, or genetics, or even dabble in some bioinformatics through a future collaborator. No field exists in its own bubble; we’re all giant blobby venn-diagrams upon venn-diagrams constantly learning about and participating in other fields. And it’s great!! So don’t feel like you’re pigeon-holing yourself permanently into anything because of what your degree says. 

So now, for the GRE! When to take it depends on your study schedule and how confident you are in whether you may need to retake the test or not. It think a good general timeline to follow will be to give yourself at least 6 months to study for the 1st test, and then give yourself another 2-3 months to study for a retake if necessary. The Princeton Review has a fabulous grad app timeline (including when to take the GRE) here. 

I have a Applying to Grad School Masterpost with lots of info culled from mine and others’ posts, including GRE tips and a link to a link to a GRE Study Plan. 

Hope that helped! Let me know if there’s anything else you’ll like to learn more about. Good luck, awesome scientist!

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your local mediocre student tries to be productive (aka finals are hard)

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I kind of wish that the idea that you can just be was a little more mainstream.

Like, having drive and ambition is great. But it gets drilled in kids’ heads that there is some pressure to constantly be looking for the next move up, to be bigger than life. It wears you down to never be satisfied.

Not everyone is destined for greatness. It just doesn’t suit some people.

There’s nothing wrong with having a quiet life, making enough to get by, having a small apartment where you’re comfortable, and just living. You don’t have to constantly be looking to go onward and upwards. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to just be.

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I’m taking the AB Calc AP this year (yikes), so here are some of the resources I’ve found so far! I’ll add more as I find them.

Free Practice Tests & Questions

1969-1988 Multiple Choice Questions

2006 Practice Exams (AB & BC, with answers)

Varsity Tutors

College Board Released FRQs 

Peterson’s Practice Test

GetAFive Practice Questions

4Tests Practice

Booooooks

The Princeton Review (3 practice exams)

REA Crash Course (online practice exams)

Barrons (AB & BC, 5 practice exams each)

Kaplan (6 practice exams & 2 diagnostics)

5 Steps to a 5 (3 practice exams)

COW Math (online calculus books)

Peterson’s (online, AB & BC)

Multiple Choice Workbook

Videos

HippoCampus

Khan Academy (so many worked answers)

WOWmath (free response questions)

Other Resources

PDF Reference Sheets (from EE, but here in a handy folder)

Interactive Mathematics Lessons

Visual Calculus (tutorials & drills)

College Board FRQ Index

MIT OpenCourseware Exam Prep

Brightstorm

Mr. Calculus

GetAFive

Paul’s Online Math Notes

Study Guides

Elaine Cheong’s Study Guide

University of Houston Study Guide

Final Review Sheet

Calculus Cheat Sheet

I hope this helps you out! There are more useful posts from my study series here.

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general language learning resources

dictionaries:

wordreference - has spanish, french, italian, portuguese, catalan, german, swedish, dutch, russian, polish, romanian, czech, greek, turkish, chinese, japanese, korean, & arabic

reverso translation - has arabic, chinese, dutch, french, german, hebrew, italian, japanese, polish, portuguese, romanian, russian, spanish & turkish

bab.la - has spanish, arabic, chinese, czech, danish, dutch, finnish, french, german, greek, hindi, hungarian, indonesian, italian, japanese, korean, norwegian, polish, portuguese, romanian, russian, swedish, swahili, thai, turkish, vietnamese, & esperanto

digital dictionaries of south asia - has dictionaries for assamese, baluchi, bengali, divehi, hindi, kashmiri, khowar, lushai, malayalam, marathi, nepali, oriya, pali, panjabi, pashto, persian, prakrit, rajasthani, sanskrit, sindhi, sinhala, tamil, telugu & urdu

resources for learning words in context:

reverso context  - has arabic, chinese (in beta), dutch, french, german, hebrew, italian, japanese, polish, portuguese, romanian, russian, spanish & turkish (in beta)

linguee - has german, spanish, portuguese, french, italian, russian, japanese, chinese, polish, dutch, swedish, danish, finnish, greek, czech, romanian, hungarian, slovak, bulgarian, slovene, lithuanian, latvian, maltese, & estonian

for learning different writing systems

omniglot - an encyclopedia with literally any language you could think of including ancient languages

scripts - an app for learning other writing systems with a limited amount for free (you can do 5 minutes a day for free) - has the ASL alphabet, Russian cyrillic, devanagari, Japanese kana, Chinese hanzi, & Korean hangul

Wikipedia is also helpful for learning different writing systems honestly!

pronunciation

forvo - a pronunciation dictionary with MANY languages (literally an underrated resource i use it all the time)

a really helpful video by luca lampariello with tips on how to get better pronunciation in any language

ipachart.com - an interactive chart with almost every sound!! literally such an amazing resource for learning the IPA (however does not include tones)

another interactive IPA chart (this one does have tones) 

language tutoring

italki - there’s many websites for language tutoring but i think italki has the most languages (i have a referral link & if you use it we can both get $10 toward tutoring lol) - they say they support 130 languages!

there’s also preply and verbling which are also good but there aren’t as many options for languages - preply has 27 and verbling has 43

(obviously these are not free but if you have the money i think tutoring is a great way to learn a language!)

getting corrections/input from native speakers

hellotalk - an app for language exchanges with native speakers & they also have functions where you can put up a piece of writing and ask for corrections - honestly this app is great

tandem - language exchange app but unlike hellotalk you can choose multiple languages (although i think hellotalk is a little bit better)

LangCorrect - supports 170 languages!

HiNative - supports 113 languages!

Lang-8 - supports 90 languages!

verb conjugation

verbix - supports a ton of languages

Reverso conjugation - only has english, french, spanish, german, italian, portuguese, hebrew russian, arabic, & japanese

apps

duolingo - obviously everybody knows about duolingo but i’m still going to put it here - i will say i think duolingo is a lot more useful for languages that use the latin alphabet than languages with another writing system however they do have a lot of languages and add more all the time - currently they have 19 languages but you can see what languages they’re going to add on the incubator

memrise - great for vocab! personally i prefer the app to the desktop website

drops - you can only do 5 minutes a day for free but i still recommend it because it’s fun and has 42 languages! 

LingoDeer - specifically geared towards asian languages - includes korean, japanese, chinese & vietnamese (as well as spanish, french, german, portuguese and russian), however only a limited amount is available for free

busuu - has arabic, chinese, french, german, italian, japanese, polish, portuguese, spanish, russian, spanish, & turkish, 

Mondly - has 33 languages including spanish, french, german, italian, russian, japanese, korean, chinese, turkish, arabic, persian, hebrew, portuguese (both brazilian & european), catalan, latin, dutch, swedish, norwegian, danish, finnish, latvian, lithuanian, greek, romanian, afrikaans, croatian, polish, bulgarian, czech, slovak, hungarian, ukrainian, vietnamese, hindi, bengali, urdu, indonesian, tagalog & thai

misc

a video by the polyglot Lýdia Machová about how different polyglots learn languages - this video is great especially if you don’t know where to start in terms of self study

LangFocus - a youtube channel of this guy who talks about different languages which is always a good place to start to understand how a specific language works also his videos are fun

Polyglot: How I Learn Languages by Kató Lomb - this book is great and available online completely for free! 

Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner (on pdfdrive) - another great book about language learning

Anki - a flashcard app (free on desktop for any system & free on android mobile - not free on ios mobile) that specifically uses spaced repetition to help you learn vocabulary, it’s got a slightly ugly design but it’s beloved by many language learners & is honestly so helpful

YouTube - literally utilize youtube it is so good.

Easy Languages - a youtube channel with several languages (basically they go around asking people on the street stuff so the language in the videos is really natural) & they also have breakaway channels for german, french, spanish, polish, italian, greek, turkish, russian, catalan & english

there’s also the LanguagePod101 youtube channels (e.g. FrenchPod101, JapanesePod101, HebrewPod101) which are super great for listening practice & language lessons as well as learning writing systems!

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a little revisit of my notes on commonly known invasive species :-)

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100 Reasons to Study:

I never expected this “reasons to study” thing to get so many submissions, and as it takes me so long to post them all, I decided to do a bulk post of some so here they are:

(If I haven’t included a url, it was submitted by an anon).

To prove people that “bad” students can become excellent students too.

To expand your knowledge of the world.

To look back on your success in ten years time. (Submitted byadxlastudies)

To not let my mental illness define my grades. (Submitted bymusicandmaths)

I study because I am privileged enough to have the opportunity. I study because I have no one getting in my way telling me I can’t. I study because I want to do some real good in this world. I study because I live in a country where being female has no significant disadvantage; and so, I take this opportunity so that I may make future opportunities for those who don’t have them. (Submitted by crimson-voltaire)

My reason for studying is how I’ll get to where I want to be in my life which is successful, comfortable, and happy.

I study to make my mum happy and proud.

I study to prove my anxiety wrong!

I study because I want to save lives.

I study because my grandpa, orphaned during WWII when he was 8, worked 4 days a week in a mine to learn for 2 days. He’s retired after 40 years of working in diplomacy, for the last 5 years as an ambassador. He’s my role model. And I love him so much.

I study because my primary school teacher from when I was 6 replied “Well who would think that?” when my mother informed her I was going to university. I study so I can tell her “Why would you not think that?”

I study because I want to give myself the best future I possibly can as a black woman. (Submitted by n-marlzz)

I study because my dreams are improbable. But not impossible. I will achieve them. (Submitted by redheadbecool)

I study because even though I can’t imagine having a future, I want one. (Submitted by stxdys)

I study so that I can be surrounded by the right people at school, at home, at work, and on Tumblr. You can only walk the path that you choose for yourself, so choose wisely. Pave your path with bricks, not straw.

I study because last year I was in a mental hospital for young people and I discovered that I want my death to mean something.

I study because diseases have haunted my family for long enough, and cancer deserves to be taken down once for all.

I study because my father left school at age 13 to work to provide for his family and he has been working ridiculously hard ever since so I can have an education.

I study to be self reliant and to get more answers. The concept of being independent is attractive to me, and if i study hard enough, i will be able to live freely without relying on my parents. The thought of getting answers is a huge satisfaction.

I study because I told my ex, “Watch me go to Harvard”. So oops.

Because I want to have a well paying job which means I can eventually travel the world one day.

I study because I love to be productive really just in love with the feeling of it being noon and already have gotten everything done that I needed for that day. (Submitted by revision-babe)

I want and I like to study because I believe that we as humans have the responsibility of maintain and grow the knowledge people developed in the past. How could we waist all those efforts to try know this wonderful world a little better?  (Submitted by mochilunar-universe​)

I study because my Dad went through a lot of work to get to this country so that I could have a good life and a good education, and I’m not going to waste all his good efforts and take him and my education for granted.

Because I believe I can do it and I won’t let their words stop me. (Submitted by truly-written-by-me)

I study for my own sense of achievement! I’m also really motivated by my boyfriend who is very clever and works really hard. I want to get a first in my masters this year and I will!  (Submitted by @orchidbeam)

I study for Nicki Minaj, she would be proud of me, and all the other women in the world. I hope that my degree will put me in the position to make a better world for all my sisters out there and the little ones.

I study because my family isn’t as rich as our family friends, and other families always make fun about what my dad does for a living. I want to change that and make sure the only thing others talk about is how amazing we turned out and what a good career I’m going into.

I study to make my parent’s hardships (moving to America, to provide a better life for my siblings and I) worth it.

My reason to study is to show myself and everyone I am stronger than my mental illness and to prove everyone who said it would stop me from getting anywhere wrong.

I study so I can change the world for the better.

I study because I want to help my family, to fulfil my dreams and save lives.

To be a champion.

I want to study in order to prove myself and people that being dyslexic and dysorthographic doesn’t mean being stupid.  (Submitted bybritannicusmyfav)

I love to learn,and I want to know about all the things I missed because of school system. (Submitted by @seshet)

I study because I want to be the first sibling to go straight into uni without transferring from a community college.

I want to study so that I can transfer out from a community college to a really good university so that people won’t think the decision I made to go to community college was bad. Also to make my DAD super proud!

I study because I want to be the best version of myself.

I study to make those who have taken care of me proud, to show them they did a good job. I also study for myself, to prove that I can fulfil my goals and that everyone who has ever made fun of me just pushed me forward instead of putting the boot in. Getting a good job to live with my boyfriend would be a great plus! We all need motivation, and what’s better to motivate oneself than dreams to fulfil! Here are mine. (~Submitted bystudy-littleidlegirl)

I study because I never want to stop learning about myself and the world we live in.

I study so I’m educated enough to take down the haters in an articulate way so I feel accomplished when leaving the situation.

I study to ensure that when I’m actively in politics, only weak minded people will be able to scorn me due to my ethnic background or religion (or something stupid along those lines) instead of the immaculate policies and work I am carrying out.

I study to become successful in my future and because I have a passion for learning. (Submitted by baklavugh)

I study because I don’t have anything else to do. I guess it keeps me so busy that I don’t have time to think how lonely I am.

Because it makes me happy to see my hard work paid off and also ensures a better future than I would have if I didn’t study well. (Submitted by h4rshitaa)

I study to be able to pursue the career I want. For the thrill of knowledge, the security of understanding. For the way it shapes how I interpret the world. I study not because it is something I must do, but because it is something that is a part of who I am.  (Submitted by @audesapare)

I study to improve my mind so I can understand deeply the things people thought I was not capable of understanding. I study so I can live the most fulfilled life possible. I take every second of this life as a chance to learn and improve myself.

Because I’m going to prove girls are useful for more then just looks and a sex object.

I study to open doors of opportunity. I study to improve my and others lives. I study to feel good when I go to sleep. I study to feel confident with my ability. I study to prove to myself what I can do.

Because I want to show to my child that everything needed effort and passion. Also I want to show how important knowledge is, as a mom and as a housewife. (Submitted by studymamapartiallyhousewife)

I study because it makes me happy to know I am in control of my future.

I study because I am curious.

So that I won’t have to struggle like my parents are financially.  (Submitted by study-sugar)

I study because I want my single mother who has worked so hard for my education to live a better life when she’s older. I want her to look at me in the future, sitting in my office in a law firm and telling herself “it was all worth it”.

FOR NICKI MINAJ. I WILL GO TO A HIGHER EDUCATION FOR YOU.

I study so that I can be proud of the person that I am.

I study because I want independence. After my bachelor’s degree I plan to be able to continue into further study such as an MA and support myself. I am an only child which has always led my family to be over protective and education will always be my way in holding my own in the world.

I study so I can have the freedom to leave where I am now and actually be happy for a change. Without studying I wouldn’t be able to get the job nor satisfaction in life I know I deserve.

I study because it’s the one thing I can decide for myself.

I study because knowledge is power and I never want to feel inferior to anyone or have any regrets. I don’t want anything to hold me back from achieving my dreams. (Submitted by shreestudies)

I study so I’m not so nervous for tests. Also to improve myself and my learning.

I study because I have a huge thirst for knowledge. I love to learn and allow that to change me as a person for the better. I love being able to understand the world around me and contribute my opinions that have been developed from what I’ve learned. (Submitted bymymindssecretpalace)

I want to be a successful person in life. I can use my intelligence to help those in need. Besides, people won’t belittle or pick on my appearance! ✌

I study because I want to help others and make people aware that how important it is to be literate. (Submitted by anashiv)

I study to show that I have potential. I study to show my learning disabilities and adhd is not me. I study because I want to grow. I study to be the person I know I can be, the person I know I am.

I’m so tired of not passing my tests, of feeling like I don’t know the material. I have testing anxiety which prevents me from doing well. I want to study enough that I feel so comfortable with the material and the anxiety goes away. I want to study so I can begin feeling proud of myself and all my accomplishments.

To help those struggling with different mental illnesses and help them see a better light.

Because I want to build that building.

I study because I want to prove all my male teachers and friends, that not only boys are learning the best, and if I want to, I can beat them all!

I want to study to make my parents proud after all the sacrifices they made for me and to succeed so my family and I can live a better life.

I study because I love to learn new things. (Submitted by ki-soonal)

I study to find a solution to stop the passing on of the genes for hereditary diseases. As in to reduce risk of young children being diagnosed with hereditary diseases.

To get that dream job and slay everyone who said it was too difficult for me.

Because education is awesome.

So I can change the world.

To give my mom and dad the life they deserve! (Submitted by samiya-malik)

Because everything is a competition and I must be best. (Submitted by letustudy)

To prove to myself and others that I can do anything I set my mind to. (Submitted by studiousstudying)

So when you are taking a test/exam your anxiety and stress levels are lower. (Submitted by introvertedturtlequeen)

I study because I want to know I’ve earned everything I achieve.

The biggest reason I study is that all of my friends are incredibly smart and when I was younger I wanted to prove to them that I could keep up, but now that I’ve decided that I don’t need to compete, I study just because it makes me feel good. (Submitted by queen-elbow)

I study because the world is an interesting place, and I want to know it as deeply as possible. (Submitted by matchamonstr)

I study because I am so sick and tired of seeing my mom struggle, all because she didn’t have a good education. I don’t want to wake up to a job I absolutely dread, and be paid minimum wage. I want to say “thanks mom, I can take care of you now.”

I study to grow big enough to reach my high hopes. (Submitted by seriousstudygirl)

To see the look on my mum and dad’s face when they see my results. (Submitted by seizethesaturday)

I study because I love to crush my enemies. I like to see the looks on their faces when they see me succeed. (Submitted by dirtylaundry-emptystyrofoam)

I study because I feel the need to prove to the world that I am more than a child prodigy that burnt out one day. I need to prove to myself that I’m just as good, if not better than I used to be. That I’ve got places to go and people to prove wrong.

I study because I love to teach and I want to know everything that I can so that I can more clearly convey things to others, and to be able to make connections across topics to make things personal and interesting to them. (Submitted by the-homework-fandom)

My dream as a little girl was “to be the most smartest person ever” and I still don’t know what else to do. (Submitted by polaroceanographer)

To create room for the real me in the future.

My reason for studying is so I can get into the university I want, and not have to travel away to one. (Submitted by iggythedragonslayer)

To get a well paid job so my children can have the best possible life.

My reason to study is to prove to my parents and myself that I can achieve my goals without the help of others. My reason to study is to gain valuable knowledge, NOT just for a grade.  (Submitted by barbstudies)

To prove to myself that I am strong and can reach my goals. (Submitted by scared-robot

I study so I have a chance of getting into the United States Air Force academy… 

I study so I am offered to meet interesting people that are also studying the same field as I am. (Submitted by ghostsname)

I’ll study so I can live relaxed as a cat in Hokkaido.

*Shia LaBoeuf voice* JUST DO IT

So I can prove myself that I am, indeed, intelligent and not just some bimbo with a hollow head. (Submitted by study-guerassimovna)

Because learning new things and having a more informed view of the world is beautiful. (Submitted by studism)

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Hey you wonderful person! I just started studying bio and was wondering if you had any advice on thinking like a biologist?

hey you wonderful person as well and budding biologist! 

Thinking like a biologist.. hmmm! never been asked something like this before, so this is great for me to think about it too! here are 7 “rules of biology” if you may, that i personally find truth in. it’s definitely not complete, and maybe not all 100% correct, since i am just one person. but it’s what i believe: 

nothing in biology is absolute. this field is about as lawless as lawlessnes gets. for example: “smoking causes lung cancer”–yes, in some cases, but not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, and not everyone who gets lung cancer smokes. because individuality exists in biology, it makes things complicated. that’s not to say there’s no rhyme or reason; it’s just that nothing happens in a vacuum/by itself so the answer to a lot things is: “well, it depends.” that’s why you’ll see a lot of words like “may”, “can”, “sometimes”, and “suggests” in biology. 

science is a tool created by humans to understand nature. thus, science can never be 100% free from human bias and error. we try to be as unbiased and close to the truth as we can by using things like experimental controls and large sample sizes, but at the end of the day, sometimes science can still be flawed. and that’s ok! but we need to be able to edit past discoveries to what we know now. (and going off of that, I really don’t like that popular quote by neil degrasse tyson: “science is true whether you believe it or not”. that’s not accurate. what’s accurate is “NATURE is true” because humans doing science can be very very flawed)

going off of that, question everything. don’t accept something is true until the evidence is sound (ie. good study design, no false interpretation of data, reputable sources, etc). even if someone well respected in the field says something, doesn’t always mean it’s true. be your own advocate in finding out the facts. 

sometimes the “outlier” can teach us the most. take cancer, for example. it’s definitely a non-normal state of health and being, but from it we learned so much about normal cellular and organ function. or how we’ve been able to discover some drug metabolism gene variations in certain populations because they didn’t respond well to a treatment during a clinical trial. a lot of knowledge in biology can come from studying what goes wrong or contrary to what we expected. 

your personal ethics may be challenged at times. this is particularly applicable for things like: science vs religion, research on animal models, who and what gets funding priority (eg. a cancer drug with the potential for pharma companies to make billions vs a tropical disease that primarily affects poor communities?), the high cost of pharmaceuticals/health-care in general, open-access knowledge vs getting scooped, is it right to sequence every individual’s genome, etc. you will truly need to know yourself, especially your beliefs and your limits, to navigate these situations. 

everything is connected, sometimes extending beyond the realm of biology. this is related to what can happen in a given situation is always “it depends”. everything affects everything; we–every living unit from microorganisms to cities–are all connected in some way. for example, recent research has shown certain populations of bacteria in our guts can alter our mental health, and it’s easy to see how that can change our day-to-day-life, which in turn can affect society in general. 

never cease to be fascinated. the biology of nature is amazing, everything from the smallest virus to the largest ecosystem. no matter how jaded you may become later in your career, never let go of that childlike curiosity that first brought you to the field. 

good luck and have fun on your adventure as a biologist :) and i’m always here if you need anything! 

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Chapter 5 - Hess’s Law pt.2: Problem solving  // Science Scribbles A-Level / IB HL Chemistry collection

(Hess’s Law part 1 | other syllabus topics)

And here is part 2. Hope I managed to explain it somewhat ^^ The reason I drew all these symbols is to explain the method, but once you get it there is no need to draw them every time!

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