The Alpha and Omega to Success
As emphasized in the introduction to this section, the most critical factor towards a successful graduate career is reading. Reading is the only way to obtain background theory and sufficient critical thinking skills required to process, design, and evaluate scientific research. Different levels of reading are required depending on the purpose. Senior undergraduate students still rely quite heavily on information derived from textbooks or lecture notes. The graduate student strives to break away from secondary sources, and instead analyze the primary source. In this sense, the student transitions from simply accepting information "face-on" to analyzing and criticizing the evidence from which this information was derived.
Initially, graduate students must complete a primary literature dissertation to establish the pretense for their project intentions. The dissertation will comprise of meticulous processing of a breadth of primary literature. Literature topics are quite advanced, so students who feel they have forgotten or simply lack basic grasp of the introductory concepts required to process advanced topics may need to revert to text book level reading. In the field of cancer biology, the standard text used to teach many senior undergraduate and even graduate level courses is Robert Weinberg's "The Biology of Cancer." The content of the text mostly introduces fundamental signaling circuity relevant to cancer biology in general. For the graduate student, the initial read of this text may consist of skimming to identify relevant chapters or subtopics, and introductory level reading, without thorough note taking or memorization. The purpose of this reading is to provide a familiar source to revert to if primary literature seems to evade the compass of the student's introductory knowledge.
"Their recollection...improved as they recited it repeatedly." - http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trying-to-forget&page=2
Initially, graduate students must complete a primary literature dissertation to establish the pretense for their project intentions. The dissertation will comprise of meticulous processing of a breadth of primary literature. Literature topics are quite advanced, so students who feel they have forgotten or simply lack basic grasp of the introductory concepts required to process advanced topics may need to revert to text book level reading. In the field of cancer biology, the standard text used to teach many senior undergraduate and even graduate level courses is Robert Weinberg's "The Biology of Cancer." The content of the text mostly introduces fundamental signaling circuity relevant to cancer biology in general. For the graduate student, the initial read of this text may consist of skimming to identify relevant chapters or subtopics, and introductory level reading, without thorough note taking or memorization. The purpose of this reading is to provide a familiar source to revert to if primary literature seems to evade the compass of the student's introductory knowledge.
"Their recollection...improved as they recited it repeatedly." - http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trying-to-forget&page=2