Like myself, you have decided to continue your academic journey and progress as a scientist (or avoid adulthood) by choosing to study a masters degree. But as cool as the title may sound, you realise that a masters, especially in science, is a whole different journey. For me, this was in Molecular Genetics and Diagnostics.
I chose this degree because I became increasingly interested in the role of genetics and everything beyond genetics (epigenetics), in disease and how changes in genetic code can be detected with the use of molecular technologies before people actually start to develop symptoms. However, as with anything you choose to pursue, there are challenges you need to overcome. I will be talking about some of my challenges in this degree and tips on how to navigate through them.
Intensity of the course
Compared to your undergraduate degree, you’ll find that the content in masters becomes more intense with lectures, assignments, exams and practicals coming at you left, right and centre – almost feeling impossible to catch a break because you’ll fall behind. Overtime this can become pretty overwhelming and now studying your favourite subject becomes a chore.
This is where your time management and organisation skills come into play. As cliché as this may sound, you need to plan, plan, plan! The only way I managed to go through the fast-paced semesters was through planning. Knowing what you need to do, when you need to do it and then progressively working on it is what will ensure you’re on track rather than waiting for that last minute burst of motivation. This means setting yourself a minimum word limit for the week for your assignments, number of lectures to get through each week and any readings you need to do. More importantly, read about your practicals beforehand to ensure you understand the purpose of the practicals rather than just ‘doing’ the practical. At the same time, I made sure to plan for breaks too where I spent my time doing things unrelated to science.
Secondly, as fascinating as genetics or any other science subject is, it is also hard to grasp key concepts straightaway. This will require using different methods of studying to fully understand the content such as watching YouTube videos, asking your lecturers and peers. Personally, I found that using various resources that explain the same topic in their own way helped me to understand. You will also have to study modules that you do not find as interesting. For me these were microbial genetics and statistics. In this instance you need to stay motivated and remind yourself that it is only for a semester!
Imposter syndrome
Research project
Kayinat Ahmed
Kayinat is a MSc student studying Molecular Genetics and Diagnostics at the University of Nottingham in the UK and is currently working on her research project for her dissertation, which involves detecting for mutations associated with Alzheimer's disease.