What Your First Lab Class Is Actually Like (and What to Bring)

Everyone's first lab class comes with the same low hum of nerves: you don't know the building, the bench layout, or whether you'll be the only one who didn't read the manual. Here's what actually happens, so the only surprise is the chemistry.

What Actually Happens in Week One

The first lab session is usually not full-on chemistry. It's orientation: a safety induction (fire exits, eyewash stations, waste disposal, emergency shower), a demonstration of the equipment, and a short, well-guided experiment designed to be hard to fail. The demonstrators (dems) — senior students and tutors whose whole job is helping you — walk around the entire time. Nobody expects you to know anything yet.

What IS strict from minute one: PPE. Labs are the one university room with a dress code that's actually enforced, because it's safety, not etiquette.

The Three Things That Get Students Sent Out

1. No lab coat. If your subject outline requires one, you don't enter the lab without it. You watch from outside — and you usually can't make up the session
2. No safety spectacles. If the subject requires closed-in eye protection, regular prescription glasses don't count — they have open gaps around the lens. You'll need proper over-glasses safety spectacles or contact lenses with safety glasses
3. Open shoes. Sneakers are fine. Sandals, mesh runners and anything with exposed skin are not. Some labs also ban shorts and skirts above the knee — check your subject outline

What to Bring (The Checklist)

• Lab coat — white is the standard requirement; elastic cuffs (same price as traditional) are the safer pick if your labs involve heat
• Safety spectacles if your outline lists them — $5 for medium impact-resistant Breeze glasses, or the same-price Traditional style that fits over prescription glasses
• Enclosed shoes
• The lab manual — printed or on a device, whatever your subject specifies
• A pen you don't love — it will end up in a pocket with chemical residue on it eventually
• Long hair tied back, jewellery off, bag on the provided shelf rather than the bench

Two Answers to Questions Everyone's Too Nervous to Ask

"Do I wear the coat to class, or put it on in the lab?" Almost everyone changes in the lab or the corridor — coats live in your bag or a locker until you get there. Nobody walks across campus in one.

"What if I'm underprepared compared to everyone else?" You're not. Everyone's in the same boat in week one, and the dems have seen every level of confusion. Asking questions is not exposing weakness; it's the whole point of the session.

The Honest Pre-Week Checklist

If you haven't got your coat yet: order at least a week early — standard delivery is 5–7 business days, and your first prac won't move for your delivery. Size from a garment you own against the Sizing Chart (don't guess t-shirt sizes — lab coats aren't t-shirts), and if it's not right, free size exchanges within 7 days cover you, as long as you've left the time.

Get Ready

• Shop lab coats and safety spectacles — coats from $24 ex GST, spectacles $5
• Measure up on the Sizing Chart
• Questions about what to order? Contact us — we've kitted out thousands of students and know what the subject outlines mean