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A lab practical is a strange kind of exam. There's no essay and often no paper to think on. You walk up to a station, look at a bone, a slide under a microscope, a dissected specimen or a model with a pin in it, and write down what it is. Then a timer goes off and you move to the next one.
The hard part isn't usually the names. It's that the thing in front of you doesn't look like the clean diagram in your textbook. Real tissue is messier, models are a different color, and the pin is on a structure you've only seen from another angle. Studying for a lab practical means training your eyes, not just your memory.
How lab practicals usually work
Formats vary by course, so check with your instructor or the lab manual. A common setup:
- Stations around the room, each with a specimen, model, slide or piece of equipment.
- A question at each one. Usually "identify the structure that's pinned or tagged," sometimes its function, or which system it belongs to.
- A fixed time per station, then everyone rotates. You often can't go back.
- Spelling may count. Ask in advance. Some instructors accept close spellings and some don't.
Knowing the format tells you how to practice: quickly, from real images, one item at a time, with no going back.
Study from what you'll actually see
This is the most important rule. If the practical uses the lab's models and specimens, study from those, not only from the textbook.
- Go to open lab hours. Many courses keep the lab open for review. Spend time with the actual models, slides and specimens. Turn them around and look from every side.
- Take photos if you're allowed. Photograph models and slides from several angles, without labels, so you can quiz yourself at home. Ask first. Some labs, especially ones with human specimens, don't allow photos at all, and you need to follow that rule.
- Use the lab manual's images. They're often closer to what's on the practical than the textbook's.
- Look at variation. A slide of the same tissue can look different from one sample to the next. Look at several, so you learn what stays the same.
Tip: when you photograph a model, take one shot that shows where the structure sits in the whole model, and one close-up. The practical might pin either.
Draw it yourself
Drawing a structure from memory is one of the best ways to learn it. You can't fake your way through a drawing: either you know where the parts go or you don't.
- Look at a model, slide or specimen and sketch it in your notes. Keep it simple. You're not making art.
- Label every part you need to know, with lines out to the side.
- Close the source and draw it again from memory on a fresh page, labels included.
- Compare and fix what you got wrong in a different color.
Repeat a day or two later. Each round, the drawing gets closer, and so does your mental image of the real thing.
Cover the labels and quiz yourself
Once you have labeled images, the core study move is simple: hide the labels, name each part, then check. This is active recall for a visual exam.
- Name it, then say one more thing. Function, location, what system it's in. Practicals sometimes ask a follow-up, and knowing the function helps you remember the name.
- Mix the order. On the practical, stations won't follow the textbook. Shuffle your images or jump around your pages.
- Learn the look-alikes together. Structures that are easy to confuse belong on the same page, side by side, with a note on how to tell them apart.
Practice under station conditions
A few days before the practical, run a mock version. Pick a set of images or models you haven't looked at that day, set a timer for the real time per station, and write an answer for each before moving on. No going back.
Study groups are great for this. One person pins or points at structures, the others answer against the clock, then you switch. See our guide to studying with a group for how to split the work.
On the day
Read each question carefully: "identify" and "give the function of" are different questions. If you blank, write your best guess and move on. A blank answer gets no credit, and an unanswered station steals time from the next one. If spelling counts, slow down for the long names.
Studying for a lab practical in Scribba
Scribba is an iPad notebook for class. Here's how it fits each step above.
Your lab photos in your notes. Add photos from the camera or your photo library straight onto a page, then move and resize them. Put your lab photos next to your notes for that week, so each image sits with its explanation. You can also turn photos into pages.
Draw and label. Six pen types and saved colors make clean sketches. Hold the Pencil still at the end of a stroke to snap a straight line or arrow, which is handy for label lines. Write labels beside a photo or drawing and point each one at its part with an arrow. If labels are tiny, the Zoom Window lets you write big and have it land small and neat on the page.
Study tape over the labels. Drag study tape over each label you wrote beside a photo or drawing, then tap to peek. That's the cover-and-name drill without a sheet of paper. It works on any page, so your lab photos become a practice station. More in our study tape guide.
Flashcards for the names. Write structures and their functions on Vocabulary paper, and Scribba turns each row into a flashcard by reading your handwriting, no Apple Intelligence needed. Cards come back on a spaced repetition schedule.
For subject-specific setups, see biology notes on iPad and nursing school notes on iPad.
Frequently asked questions
How early should I start studying for a lab practical?
Start a week or more ahead if you can, because you'll want time with the real models during open lab hours. Learning to recognize structures takes several short rounds, not one long session.
Can I study for a lab practical from the textbook alone?
It helps for names and functions, but the practical uses real specimens and models. Spend as much time as you can with the lab's own materials, or photos of them.
What if I can't take photos in the lab?
Draw instead. Sketch each structure during lab or open hours, label it, then cover the labels to quiz yourself later.