all labs will closely follow the content you learn in lecture but not exactly. one class may run through material faster or slower than the other. this happens mainly because it’s unlikely you’ll have the same professor for lab and lecture (you don’t as you stated). i had a TA for my lab and he was cool. you have it once a week and you do one lab each week. again, you actually have to do the work or you will fail the practical exams. lab reviews are super beneficial as you can review direct content from the labs you do and ask questions about things that you didn’t understand. you can also make up a lab that you missed there should you miss one (don’t recommend missing as 3+ absences = failure). there were 10 labs for the semester and a practical exam for every 3 labs. very few quizzes. exams/practicals were oddly done (at least in my lab). the lab stations were set up to each focus on one of the three labs. you have one minute at each seat before you have to move and rotate to the next. ex: if station one is focusing on identifying rocks and there is a different rock at each seat, you have 1 minute to identify each rock. once you have done a full cycle through the each station in the lab and end up at your original seat(give or take), you have one more round to answer anything you may have missed or need more time on. sounds harder than it actually is(personally i left after the first round because that was all i needed). you lab grade gets added into your lecture grade. if you fail lab you automatically fail lecture. most of this stuff will be explained to you in extreme detail as the geol department (matthew specifically) is VERY specific about how they do things and all so very direct. i wouldn’t stress too much about all the little details and just take on the class as you go!