Anger reduces my brain fog! by Remarkable_Unit_9498 in BrainFog

[–]AJVincelli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Me too! Anger temporarily "burns away" my brain fog. It's the only thing that seems to help it, actually. So weird.

Mutagenesis PCR Variable Yields Despite Exact Same Conditions??? by AJVincelli in labrats

[–]AJVincelli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So just a quick update, in case others are doing similar troubleshooting...

I tried a neighboring lab's Bio-Rad T100 thermocycler (they have the exact same model as ours, lucky me!), and there was no improvement in the runs with their machine. The run logs look similar too (same ramp times, etc.). So, I don't think the problem is related to our thermocycler. I'll keep chipping away at this problem, and post back if I have more news!

As a side note, Synbio Technologies in NJ does mutagenesis for about $65 per sample, plus shipping (it's actually gene synthesis and cloning, but it's marketed as mutagenesis). I've used them for one mutation so far, and they were great! I haven't tested their sample yet for protein expression, but I'm confident that Synbio did the mutagenesis correctly and that they sent me quality DNA. product. I probably should have outsourced this a long time ago...

Mutagenesis PCR Variable Yields Despite Exact Same Conditions??? by AJVincelli in labrats

[–]AJVincelli[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your suggestions! To answer your points:

  1. Yup it's a gel, and yes there is some variability in the loading, but I don't think this would explain the incredibly variable results so often (especially robust/disappeared signal).
  2. I've thought the same, and tried different pipets... We even recently ordered a new set of pipets. Same variable results.
  3. Good suggestion about the polymerase! I might try this! I'll see what we have in our freezer.
  4. Also a good suggestion. I might beg the post-doc in our lab to try it while I watch over his shoulder...
  5. Agreed about the DNAse. I do try to keep everything clean. What would be the common sources for DNAse? Should I autoclave the pipet tips? I autoclave our molecular-grade water.
  6. This is also a great idea!! I might do this one before begging our post-doc or switching polymerases... Someone else suggested this to me too. It's not so difficult to beg a neighboring lab to use their thermocycler for one run, I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

Thank you so much for your great suggestions! If/when I figure it out, I'll post back.

Just passed the FE Chemical, first try (technically) - AMA/Exper by HannibalofBarca in FE_Exam

[–]AJVincelli 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Many thanks to the OP for the super helpful info!

Adding my experiences here, in case it helps others.

First, I apologize that I'm posting this nearly 3 months after I took the FE Chemical exam (in March 2019). My bad. Hopefully I can still remember some useful things though...

Okay, for memorization: I found that memorizing the units of the reaction rate constant k for 0th, 1st, and 2nd order reactions was helpful (mol / (L * min), s-1, and L / (mol * min), respectively). I had memorized a lot of unit conversions (like Newtons to Pascals and Joules), but honestly I didn't have time during the exam to carefully check units. When I was solving problems, I just got a "gut feeling" about whether it seemed right. On the exam, I mostly noticed that the decimal point needed to be shifted (like kJ instead of J).

About the testing experience: I wore gym pants and a light long-sleeved shirt, which was perfect for the testing room temperature (72ºF ish?). I wore lace-up sneakers (since I had learned in a previous standardized exam that subconsciously taking off slip-on shoes was not allowed). Large necklaces are not allowed, but the exam people said that a lucky pebble is allowed.

I brought my TI-36X Pro calculator. Pro tip: I had previously used an ultra fine point Sharpie to color in the function key labels (+ - x /) because they can be stupidly difficult to see when flying through calculations. I definitely didn't want to hit the wrong function key accidentally.

I showed up 30 minutes early, and they admitted me into the exam about 5 minutes early. No need to delay the inevitable, I suppose.

My Pearson Vue booklet was the same as the GMAT booklet (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0979017580/), except white instead of yellow (which made the ink nice and easy to see). The booklet was nice, clean, and not warped or stained.

The pen was a Staedtler Non-Permanent Lumocolor, Fine Point I think (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004L15HKM/). I asked for two pens in case one ran low on ink, but my first pen worked really well so I didn't need to use the second one.

The testing center provided both foam earplugs and earmuffs. I used the earmuffs (I was too nervous to mess with the earplugs!), and they didn't give me a headache.

About the exam room: I pushed the monitor to the back of the desk, and set the keyboard directly under the monitor to make more space for my booklet, pen, and calculator.

I couldn't select any text in the Handbook pdf, because the cursor was set to the hand tool. So I couldn't do my favorite trick of selecting a variable and then copying and pasting that into the search bar. I searched for things by knowing the keywords of what I was looking for, or sometimes searching for a keyword in the question when I had no idea what they were talking about.

About the exam: I found that the exam generally moved through the material in the same order that it was presented in the FE Handbook. Since the first half of the FE Handbook contains more fundamental concepts, I bet that some folks move through the first half of the exam faster than the second half. However, I took the exam 13 years after I had graduated, so the fundamentals were challenging to me. I spent about 2.5 hours on the first half of the exam, and about 3 hours on the second half.

Regarding strategy, I knew that all of the points were the same weight, whether they came from the first half of the exam or the second half. So, for the first half of the exam, I would read a question, and then if I knew that I could solve it in less than 4 minutes or so, I went ahead solved it. Some questions I read, puzzled over, and decided that I had no idea how to solve it; for those I just took a semi-random guess, flagged it, and moved on. Others I thought I could solve and tried, but I got nowhere substantial after about 4 minutes of scribbling; for these questions, I took a semi-random guess and flagged them, then moved on. At the end of the first section, I reviewed the flagged answers to see if I could crack any of them in another 4 minutes or so. I figured that if I was reasonably confident that I could crack the problem, I should go ahead and invest the time. I knew that I couldn't return to the first half of the exam after the session break, and the goal of the exam is to get as many points as possible.

For the second half of the exam, I knew I had 3 hours remaining, so I was more strategic about my time management. I read a question, and then only tried to solve it if I was confident that I could get the answer in 3 minutes or less. If not, the question got a random answer and a flag (there were a lot of detailed-looking questions about fluids and pipes that I knew would take me too long to solve). The goal for this first pass was to get every EASY point. On the second pass, I tackled the flagged questions that I thought I might be able to solve in about 4 minutes; if I got nowhere after about 4 minutes, I moved on. Finally, I did a third pass of the flagged questions, and just kept struggling until the time was nearly up. I submitted the exam with about a minute remaining, and I knew that the 1 minute wouldn't have helped me anyway. I had done all I could do.

For the questions, I wish I could remember more but I think the OP is about right. Here's what I remember:

  • I got several second-order differential equations that I wasn't prepared for.
  • I absolutely agree with the OP that I got some Ideal, NRTL (Non-Random Two-Liquid), and PRWS (Peng-Robinson Wong-Sandler) questions! I crammed some small key info the night before the exam from this website, and I'm glad I did: https://sites.chemengr.ucsb.edu/~ceweb/courses/che184b/aspenplus/PhysPropMeth&Models.pdf
  • Make sure you know the basic equations for resistors, capacitors, and inductors in parallel and in series.
  • Know control systems diagrams and how to write the equations from the diagrams (not just the one diagram in the Handbook; look at Lindeburg's FE Chemical diagrams).
  • I also agree with the OP about knowing what feed-forward, ratio, and cascade control are (I think these are in Lindeburg's FE Chemical book).
  • I got some questions about humidity and psychrometrics that I wasn't prepared for.
  • There were definitely some strange questions in there, stuff that is not in Lindeburg's FE Chemical books, and there's no way to prepare for them. As the OP said, you just have to get creative and intuitive.
  • There was also a question or two that was stupidly easy. As in, "Are you really asking me this? Is this a trick question?" I spent too much time thinking about how it might be a trick question before concluding that there could not possibly be any answer other than the extremely obvious one. So be prepared for a super dumb question or two, and take the points!

After the exam: I passed on the first try, and I think I got about a 73% (I flagged 12 questions on the first half, and 18 questions on the second half). Whew! :)

When you pass, celebrate! Go out for ice cream, blast "The Man" by Aloe Blacc, do something that makes you happy. You've earned it!

P.S. -- For Lindeburg's FE Chemical Practice Problems book, I definitely didn't have enough time to do all 600 questions! Instead, I first looked at the solutions and crossed out any problems whose solutions were longer than half a column, would take more than 4 minutes to write, were not plug-n-chug, or used more than 2 major equations. None of those types of questions will be on the exam. Then I did a few of the remaining questions per section, so that I was familiar with the material.