It is the first week into semester two, and the daunting concept of graduation has already started to set in.

Finding a job, applying to dental school, writing thesis, and having time for other classes/extracurricular activities is making this semester the busiest semester yet (really). To top it all off, this week I am studying for something called “the biology comprehensive exam” (AKA the Bio comp).

As a senior biology major, I must pass this test to graduate. It will cover all the information in the three core biology classes. This includes organismal bio, cellular/molecular bio, and ecology and evolution. There will also be questions regarding the various electives we have taken. This is exam is long- six hours. This is exam intimidating- one must pass. We will see how it goes!

Even though I have not been able to do as much lab work as I would like this week, I did complete a lot over winter break. I stayed two weeks during my winter vacation to catch and get ahead in thesis lab work. Thus, I officially started my qPCR stage for testing gene responses due to oxidative stress induction by diquat. Overall, I have a clear plan on what I have to do for the next few weeks, and after the bio comp I will be ready to go!

Until next time,

Nick Pray’15