Anyone else in biochem feel like they're constantly faking it?
Third year biochem student here and man, some days I walk into lab and wonder how I even got this far. Like last Tuesday I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why my gel wasn't running, only to realize I forgot to plug in the power supply. Meanwhile the sophomore next to me is casually explaining protein folding pathways like she's reading a grocery list.
I know the material when I'm studying alone. I can walk through metabolic pathways on my whiteboard at 2am no problem. But put me in a study group or have a professor ask me something on the spot and my brain just empties out. Then I stumble through some half answer while everyone nods along politely.
My advisor keeps telling me my grades are solid and I'm right where I should be, but I can't shake this feeling that I tricked everyone somehow. That any day now someone's gonna tap me on the shoulder and be like "hey so we reviewed your file and yeah, there's been a mistake."
The weird thing is I actually love this stuff. Give me a messy research paper and I'll happily spend my Saturday decoding it. I just feel like I'm playing catch-up while everyone else has some secret manual I never got.
Anyone else dealing with this? How do you get out of your own head when the doubt kicks in?