The second midterm for this course was very different from the majority of midterms and final exams that I have taken during my time in university, in a refreshing way. Far too often in science, particularly in biology, there is an emphasis on rote memorization of facts and definitions. For example, in one of my fourth-year courses that I took last year, I ended up with a list of over 200 transcription factors, genes, and developmental pathways to memorize for the final exam. However, this obviously is not what doing biological research is like in the real world, especially with the internet enabling us to look up the name of any gene or protein whose name or function we might have forgotten.

Instead, the midterm for this course completely focused on conceptual understanding. Delving deep into the primary research paper did require some fundamental knowledge of epigenetics, X chromosome inactivation, and developmental biology, but beyond that it was really about understanding the scientific method. I realized that up until a year or so ago, I would take scientific papers at face value, assuming that everything the authors had written was completely accurate. I would often skim through the results and go straight to the discussion, often ignoring the figures altogether! This course, however, has taught me how to bring a healthy skepticism to scientific literature, and to use my own judgement and critical thinking skills to assess the scientific validity of a conclusion. This is a process that will be incredibly helpful for me as I continue to work on my thesis, reading through a large amount of primary literature and investigating my own scientific questions.