First ELISA completed plus making presentation 'the best it can be'

This week I got to do my first ELISA! ELISA stands for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and is a diagnostic technique that detects specific agents within a sample. We run a lot of ELISA's in Dr. (David) AuCoin's lab, so finally being able to do one felt like an initiation to be a full-fledged member of the lab. Although ELISA's are very sensitive, I've been practicing my technique throughout the week in hopes of improving them as I get more ELISA's to do.

Other than my first few ELISA's, I've been finalizing my presentation for the upcoming UCLA conference. I finally feel like it's all coming together. I'm hoping that next week I can spend a lot of time practicing my presentation. I don't feel too nervous anymore, rather I feel like I need to focus and spend as much time as I can worrying about making this presentation the best it can be.

This was the last week of GRE Prep, meaning the time to see how much progress I had made was finally upon us. After some last minute studying, we took our post-test on Thursday, and it went pretty well. I improved my verbal by 6 points, which is awesome because that's where I was struggling the most. I stayed consistent with my quantitative score, but my writing score improved from the 60th percentile to around the 80-90th percentile! This prep class has helped me immensely to prepare for the GRE. I still have a lot of work to do before my GRE test in August, but I feel like I'm in a really good place now thanks to that class.

(Editor's note: This is another in a series of summertime blog posts by McNair Scholar Anjana Dissanayaka.)