Sophomore takes third place at UCLA Brain Bee
Sophomore Anish Natarajan accepts third place in the Los Angeles’ Brain Bee. The annual neuroscience competition was held at UCLA (Photo courtesy of Anish Natarajan).
Sophomore Anish Natarajan earned third place out of 92 competitors at the 2017 Los Angeles Brain Bee, a one-day knowledge-based neuroscience competition hosted at the UCLA Neuroscience Research Auditorium Saturday, Jan. 21.
Designed to encourage participation in neuroscience, the Brain Bee is an international competition that involves a written exam, a neuroanatomy practical component and a Q&A session. Natarajan competed in the Los Angeles division.
“I was surprised mainly by the fact that I even made it this far, because I wasn’t even expecting to be in the top 10,” Natarajan said.
It definitely was a rewarding experience,
— Anish Natarajan
Because the competition occurs annually, some students spend months preparing for the different components of the competition. Natarajan’s strategy included listening to college lectures and studying textbooks on basic neurology.
“I participated in a review session with the facilitators of this competition — a club in UCLA named Interaxon,” Natarajan said. “In this review session, we looked at anatomy and disorders, mainly. Later, we even got to dissect a human brain.”
Each round was divided into two parts: a written multiple-choice portion and a written diagram-portion that included a practical component: dissecting a human brain. The next round was an oral Q&A test. After these rounds, participants were eliminated until the top three remained.
“What really helped me [during the Q&A test] was the fact that I got two 300-point questions correct, whereas the others chose two 500-point questions and only got one of them right,” Natarajan said.
Natarajan added that, because participants were able to attend lectures by medical professionals during the event, the Brain Bee balanced competition with education.
“We even got to see a presentation on the microbes from Dr. Elaine Hsiao, who is a prominent researcher in the medical field,” Natarajan said.
Though happy with his third-place win, Natarajan said he’s ready to continue learning.
“It definitely was a rewarding experience,” Natarajan said, “and I plan to compete next year.”
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