In biotech labs, not everyone gets the chance to use the instruments. A lot of students feel anxious or excluded when they just watch while others are pipetting, centrifuging, or running the PCR.
Getting hands-on experience is important—and not having it can lead to a lack of confidence.
Have you ever felt nervous about not having enough time to handle instruments during lab sessions?
Yes this is true. In university lab within a short period not everyone may get the chance to work with. You actually have to grab the opportunity. Study the experiment well in advance and go so that you may have better clarity during lab hour. On the other end its always better to attend summer internships and get a detailed exposure of the techniques.
True. This is a very real issue in many universities across all over India. What generally happens here is, some hyper-active students take charge and the shy/introvert ones do not get the chance at all to operate any lab equipment all by themselves till the exam practical comes where they have to do it alone and there they exhibit inability. Moreover, the lab sessions are over-crowded due to high student number in the subject and also there’s high student-to-equipment ratios and these two reasons create the problem. These days for starting level biotechnologist positions too, one needs to know basic skills such as pipetting, centrifugation, DNA/RNA/Protein isolation, PCR, AGE, SDS-PAGE etc and that’s why learning these skills are very important. One can request for extra practice sessions by taking special permission from the faculties (as this is allowed at many universities) and online biotechnology platforms/YouTube can be used where these techniques are taught through visual representations or video forms. In addition, one should apply for short internships in various research labs or pharmaceutical industries to learn these techniques skilfully.
Many students feel that way, especially when there’s limited equipment and too many people. Watching others do everything while you just observe can be frustrating. It makes you doubt your own skills and wonder if you’ll be ready for real lab work in the future. Getting to actually use the instruments helps you learn better and feel more confident. Every student deserves that chance.
Yes I often felt like it but it’s okay , once I will have enough experience then I will be using them 
Yes, I can totally relate. During my graduation, I barely got any real lab exposure. I only did two practicals: media preparation and Gram staining, and even those were done using expired chemicals. For pipetting, we used only water, just to practice the motion. My college had instruments like a centrifuge, incubator, hot air oven, and shaker, but none of them worked. The microscope lenses were missing, and one side of the weighing balance was broken. With such poor lab conditions, I ended up with almost no hands-on experience.
So when I started my Master’s, I felt extremely underconfident. Most of my basic practical knowledge came from short training programs, not from my actual coursework. It really made me feel like I was far behind others, even though it wasn’t my fault. This is a hidden struggle many students face, and I truly hope more awareness is raised about it. Equal access to lab facilities should be a priority, not a privilege.