These are just a scant few of the common questions asked by bioinformatics students as they ready themselves for the next exam sitting. If you read the entire Syllabus (and I know that everyone does), you will see a section devoted to study and exam techniques. The section discusses such broad concepts as motivation, scheduling, and retention. Upon reading this section, however, I find the "hints" to be too general. Much of the advice boils down to read, study, understand, and memorize the material. The techniques mentioned apply to everyone and thus the overall advice ends up as a broad overview of the learning process.

The idea behind this article is to give students ideas on different approaches and techniques in the preparation for exams. By providing various ways to prepare for the exam process, fascinated readers may gain some additional insight to help complement their studying methodology. There are, of course, many common themes expressed in this small empirical sample of students' study habits. The idea of note cards, memorization, and problem solving are frequently mentioned by all students. No matter what technique a candidate uses, it always takes a significant amount of time and personal resources to successfully complete the examination process.

1 Explain it in your own word

Your teacher or lecturer can explain something to you, you can learn it from a text book, your friends can study with you, even your own notes can explain it to you but all these explanations are of little use if, by the end, you can’t explain what you have learned to yourself. The BINC exam looking for ability to write and explain the concept in your own word. You, therefore, need to illustrate in an exam to get top exam results, then you won’t be happy with your end exam result. So don’t just memorise and tick off the list – make sure you understand your theory.

2 Be an examiner yourself

Of course, depending on what you’re studying, it may be quite difficult to get into a position to understand a concept, theory or other information you need to learn. Ask ‘stupid’ question to yourself and train yourself for the worst! Embrace your curiosity, for as William Arthur Ward said: “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” Doing so will allow you to fill in the blanks and better prepare you for exams.

3 Quiz yourself

Once you feel you understand topic, it is important to test yourself regularly. Try yourself to replicate exam conditions as much as possible: turn your phone off, don’t talk, time yourself etc. You can set yourself a study quiz or practice exam questions and, so long as you approach it with the right mindset, you can get a very good idea of how much you know. You gain a greater insight into where you stand in relation to what you’ve studied so far.

4 Online study

Keeping the fact that, bioinformatics is ever changing subject, you might need to update yourself on timely basis. Don’t feel obliged to just sit in front of a book with a highlighter; there are many different ways to improve your bioinformatics knowledge. Login and check almost all web servers and keep yourself updated, like how many genomes sequenced, sizes, techniques used, software names etc.

5 Study plan

In order to achieve exam success, you need to know what you want to achieve and focus on. That’s why it is extremely important to set your Study Goals now and outline to yourself what you need to do. With your study goals in mind, you properly need to attention all subjects. It should be broad enough to allow you to add and change aspects but concise enough so you know you’re covering each subject/topic as best you can at this point.

Project: Indo-UK Centre for improvement of Nitrogen use efficiency in wheat Dr. Soma S. Marla, Pr. Scientist (Bioinformatics), Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR, NBPGR, ND.

Qualification: Ph.D. Degree in Computer Sciences/Bioinformatics OR 1. First class Master’s degree in any discipline of Plant Sciences with specialization in Computer Sciences/ Bioinformatics having 1st division or 60% marks or equivalent overall grade point average with at least two years of research experience as evidenced from Fellowship/ Associate ship. 2. NET qualification is essential for the candidates with 3+2 years B.Sc.+ M.Sc. Desirable: Demonstrated experience & skills in database design, management, UNIX OS, in NGS data analysis. Experience substantiated by publications of high quality will be preferred.

No.of Post: 1

Pay Scale: Rs. 40,000 (Ph.D)/ Rs + 30 % HRA; Rs.38,000 ( Masters Degree 0 + 30 % HRA).

Age Limit : below 40 years for RA position
How to apply
Applicants for RA post should send their complete CV (Advance copy of the application may be sent by email to :soma.marla@icar.gov.in or ssmarl@yahoo.com, should enclose the copy of the research publications; one page summary of their achievement relevant to the post applied for; and should enclose two reference letters (one must be from the person with whom worked latest). Shortlisted candidate will be intimated for interview by email.

The candidates who wish to attend the walk-in interview are requested to bring with them five copies of the CV (one copy with photograph) as per the format given below. Also, the candidates should bring the original documents such as degree certificates, marks sheets, publications, thesis, experience certificate etc. for verification.

Date of Interview: 17.8.2016.

More at http://www.nbpgr.ernet.in/Downloadfile.aspx?EntryId=7133

Applications are invited on plain paper from eligible candidates along with biodata and copies of certificates in support of age, qualification and experience for the following position:

Particulars Description

1. Position & No. JRF (Junior Research Fellow) 01

2. Title of the Project Molecular modeling and docking studies on Deguelin and its derivatives with cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and anti-angiogenesis pathway proteins in cancer cell signaling pathway

3. Tenure 3 years

4. Investigator Dr. K. V.Swamy

5. Institute Dr. D. Y. Patil Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Institute, Tathawade, Pune 411033.

5. Qualifications/Eligibility

Essential: NET (National Eligibility Test) qualified M. Sc Bioinformatics/ M. Tech Bioinformatics/M. Sc Biotechnology/M. Tech Biotechnology or Graduate degree in Professional course with NET qualification or Post graduation degree in professional course

The following examinations conducted by various Central Government Departments/Agencies are considered as National Eligibility Test (NET).

1. CSIR-UGC-LS
2. GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)
3. JAM (Joint Admission Test)
4. GPAT (Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test)
5. BET(Biotechnology Eligibility Test)
6. BINC(Bioinformatics National Consortium)
7. JEST( Joint Entrance Screening Test)
8. JGEEBILS(Joint Graduate Entrance Examination for Biology & Interdisciplinary Life Sciences)
9. NBHM Ph.D scholarship Screening Test
10. ICMR- JRF Entrance Examination
11. AICE (ICAR-All India competitive Examination )
(For all above examinations valid score considered at the time of interview)

Desirable: Knowledge and skills in Bioinformatics tools/ softwares

6. Monthly Emoluments Rs.25,000/ (As per DST-SERB rules)

7. Last date for submission of prescribed application 20/08/2016

Kindly send your applications to “Dr. K. V. Swamy, Asst.Professor, Dr. D. Y. Patil Biotechnology & Bioinformatics Institute, Survey No. 87/88, Mumbai-Pune Express Way, Tathawade, Pune - 411033, Maharashtra, India”. Highlight the envelope with “Application for post of JRF (Junior Research Fellow)”.

Note: No TA/DA will be paid for attending the interview.

Advertisement: http://careers.dpu.edu.in/Biotech.aspx

• Assembly of nanopore reads using Canu.
• Polish canu contigs using racon (optional).
• Map a paired-end Illumina dataset onto the contigs obtained in the previous steps using BWA mem.
• Perform correction of contigs using pilon and the Illumina dataset.

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/nanoporetech/ont-assembly-polish

• dnaPipeTE is developped by Clément Goubert, Laurent Modolo and the TREEP team of the LBBE: http://lbbe.univ-lyon1.fr/-Equipe-Elements-transposables-.html?lang=en

• You can find the original publication in GBE here: https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/7/4/1192/533768

output examples of quantification and TE landscape (relative age) produced by dnaPipeTE

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/clemgoub/dnaPipeTE

Project :“Genetic Transformation and Development of Elite Transgenic Maize (Zea mays L.) for Biotic and Abiotic Stresses Tolerance”.

Qualification: Ph.D. degree in:Biotechnology/Bioinformatics/Biochemistry/Plant Molecular Biology/Plant Physiology/Botany or any related area with evidence of prior experience in maize transformation.

Additional experience in plant transformation of any cereal crop would be preferable.

The appointment would initially be for one year.

How to apply
Interested applicants should send their detailed CV including brief synopsis regarding the previous research experience (along withcontact email address by email) to: Dr. Tanushri Kaul (tanushri@icgeb.res.in). Group Leader, Nutritional Improvement of Crops Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi-110 067.

Closing date for applications: 22 August 2016.

More at http://www.icgeb.org/vacancies.html

Ra is in development since 2014 in the form of several separate components that used to be run individually.
This project aims to ease the usage of Ra by integrating it into a complete de novo assembly tool.

Unlike other state-of-the-art assemblers, Ra does not have an error correction step. Instead, it relies on detecting overlaps using a very sensitive and specific overlapper ("graphmap -w owler", https://github.com/isovic/graphmap) and constructing and reducing an overlap graph (Ra layout, https://github.com/mariokostelac/ra).

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/mariokostelac/ra-integrate/

Senior Manager (Bioinformatics Operations)
No. of posts: 01 (General)
Pay Scale: PB-3 15600-39100 + Grade Pay Rs.6600/-
Min. Qualification: PhD in Bioinformatics, , Life Sciences or Computer Science applied to biological questions.
A Min. 5 years of experience
Age limit: 40 years as on August 01, 2016

More at http://www.rgcb.res.in/positions.php

Using AlignGraph

AlignGraph --read1 reads_1.fa --read2 reads_2.fa --contig contigs.fa --genome genome.fa --distanceLow distanceLow --distanceHigh distancehigh --extendedContig extendedContigs.fa --remainingContig remainingContigs.fa [--kMer k --insertVariation insertVariation --coverage coverage --part p --fastMap --ratioCheck --iterativeMap --misassemblyRemoval --resume]

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/baoe/AlignGraph

The tool should be compatible with most UNIX flavors and has been successfully tested on the following operating systems:

• Mac OS X 10.11.1
• Mac OS X 10.10.3
• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/mculinovic/EAGLER