#biol 340

[ayyellesrambles]

Hi! I'm going into my 4th year in biology this fall and am having trouble deciding which labs to take. I read your review of the labs you took, BIOL 341 & 363 and I am planning to take 363, but I'm not sure which other lab to take. I read in your 341 review that it helps to have taken BIOL 335 (which I have not) so I'm probably looking at BIOL 340 or 337. I was wondering if you had any insight on which labs were better than others or if you had friends who enjoyed the labs they took? Thanks!

340 is a good compliment to 341; my friends who took that pair say they hand-in-hand. 340 wasn’t very good when my friends and I were taking our labs, they said 340 required a lot of work, it wasn’t too hard, but you had to take the time to go into the lab to work projects outside of scheduled lab times. They all said that they felt 341 was a lot more manageable than 340, and although 335 is a good to take before or with 341, it’s not required. 

[ayyellesrambles]

Hi! Based on what you have heard, what are your feedbacks between Biol 340 and BIOL 341? Easiness, workload, interesting lelevel etc. Thanks!

They’re both useful for sure. BIOL 341 will give you the basic skills to work in any laboratory that uses molecular genetic laboratory techniques (cloning, PCR, DNA extraction, screening, transduction etc.). BIOL 340 will give you experience with protein analysis (such as western blots), I never took BIOL 340 so I don’t know exactly what they learn. I have friends who took both and said although both were pretty interesting and useful, the workload for BIOL 340 far exceeds that of BIOL 341. However, if you’re interested in molecular and cell biology, and want to work in a lab, the two courses will complement each other. The grades end up being similar for both courses. 

[elwynbrooks]

I literally just got back from 12 straight hours of lab work. On a stat holiday.

And I'm going back in another 12.

[ayyellesrambles]

Hey, how are Biol 340 and Biol 363? Are either of these classes hard or really time consuming? I'm planning to take both of them in one term along with other classes and don't want to over do it. Are the marks primarily made up of lab reports, midterm, and final or is the lecture component also have a final as well? Thanks

You can look up Biol 363 in my search engine to see what I thought about it and where you get marks from.

I wouldn’t recommend doing them at the same time, I never took Biol 340 (you can check out the courses I actually took on the side) but I’ve heard that it’s pretty crazy and very, very time consuming. Everyone I know who’ve taken it did not enjoy it at all because of the heavy work load. Biol 363 isn’t as bad and I thought the workload was pretty light compared to Biol 341, which I did take. 

[ayyellesrambles]

Do you know which biol labs are easier or less workload?

The plant labs are generally really chill (except for Biol 351 and Biol 352). Biol 340 is apparently like hell. Biol 363 isn't too bad.