Are you receiving the training you deserve? How does your lab/professor match up to others? Try the professor/lab quality quiz!

The game works for both students and postdocs; for the postdoc version, change every instance of the word “student” to “postdoc,” and let T_PhD equal the number of years of the average length-of-postdoc minus the number 4.

To assess the quality score of a professor’s lab, simply gather the “Lab Statistics” values, and then gather the “Individual Experience Values” for as many fellow students or postdocs as possible. Average the I_i values, and plug everything in to receive the professor’s Q_prof score.

A good score will be positive, and will vary in magnitude (about 5-20) between realistic students and postdocs (student scores will likely be greater in magnitude); a bad score will be negative and will also vary between students and postdocs.

If you like the quiz and would like to know how your fellow colleagues calculated their Q_prof score, send in your results either to me at or to Natural Selections at . If we get enough responses, we will publish the results based on your input. Please make sure to indicate who your boss is and whether you are a student or a postdoc. You can also calculate and send in your total Q_prof score using only your own I_i and V_lab values, if you prefer. If you go this route, please include the I_i and V_lab values in addition to the Q_prof score and we can average things here.