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10/04/2001 Archived Entry: "Experimentation"

One of the new courses I'm taking this year is Experimental Psychology; I'd chosen it because lately I've been growing a real interest in neuroscience and consciousness, and also because it came highly recommended to me from a neuroscience student in the year above. 'The lectures are so good, some of my friends from completely unrelated subjects used to come along!' he enthused, while I kept a neutral stance.

Well, it turned out that the lecture were indeed absolutely first class, and that's probably due to the fact that a lot of the material is almost completely new to me, unlike, say, Molecular Cell Biology where I know that we're going to cover DNA structure, cell differentiation and so on.

Today I had my first Experimental Psychology practical - I got to the practical building about a minute late and immediately walked into the first room which I'd seen other people walking into. Luckily the practical/lecture hadn't started yet so I managed to get all my stuff sorted out. While doing this, the girl sitting next to me introduced herself and asked whether I was doing medical or physical Natural Sciences. A bit confused about this, I replied that I was a bioNatSci.

- 'Ah, right. I'm a medic.'

'Hmm. I didn't know that medics could take part in NatSci lectures?'

- 'Well, yeah, I'm a medical NatSci. So have you chosen your projects yet?'

[At this point I'm getting extremely confused and worried, and a small voice in the back of my head is insistently pointing out that I don't recognise a single person in the room.]

'Projects? I thought you only did projects in Part II NatSci - this is IB.'

- 'This is Part II NatSci.'

[The small voice disappears from my mind in a self-satisfied flash of smugness.]

'Ah. I'm only doing Part IB.'

- 'Wow, you're a bit keen then, aren't you?'

'Er, yes, so it would appear. You know, I think I'm in the wrong room. Do you know where the practical room is?'

And then I made my swift getaway, with the maximum amount of grace that I could muster under such circumstances (a not inconsiderable amount, as it happened).