Microbiology 'unknowns' help

[jackson145]

I'm getting ready to start unknowns in my micro class. I do very well at Gram staining but after that I'm a little shaky. Has anybody been through this and remember what steps to take?

[catzy5]

I'm getting ready to start unknowns in my micro class. I do very well at Gram staining but after that I'm a little shaky. Has anybody been through this and remember what steps to take?

We were walked through every step with our unknown. Every lab for like 4 weeks was dedicated to a set of steps used to Identify the unknown.

The most important thing I would suggest is to keep a journal of everything you did that day and what your results were. Some days you will set tests up and you may not read them until the following lab. Also if you are allowed take pictures of your results. You forget so much so often even if you wrote it down, I think my pictures saved me big time! I could take them home and look at everything over and over again. Also, even if you wrong if you have the info to back it up you can move your grade up for discussing what you did wrong and how to make it different etc...

Good luck the unkown was my favorite part of micro it was like an episode of CSI

[jackson145]

My biggest concern is my lack of practice. When we did natural skin flora, nothing grew on my agar so I had nothing to test that day. When we cultured each other's throats I only had one type of bacteria that grew, so I only got to examine a positive cocci. I feel like I've missed certain bacteria that I really needed to see.