Originally Posted by Mana
Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
Some of you may not yet see the results-- but trust me that such students RUIN the experience of dual enrollment or AP coursework. Because they are the ones interrupting the teacher to ask "will this be on the test?" when a smaller cohort of students is interested in exploring a topic under discussion.

One of my favorite professors had it on his syllabus that no one is to ever ask that question.

One of mine (scathingly) responded to a graduate student who was foolish enough to ask it...


Do you want me to TELL you what will be on the test??

eek

The grad student in question went blush and wanted, very clearly, for the floor to open up underneath him and swallow him into a sinkhole at that moment.

Two weeks later, while I was TA-ing gen chem for him, a freshman student asked the precise same question. He shot me a sly look (because I suspect he knew that I'd heard the story already), and less scathingly, though still with a downright wolfish grin, informed the student that paying attention in class, reading the textbook, and doing the homework might provide some helpful clues for this endeavor.

Ahhh, good times. wink Theoretical physical chemist, incidentally. The first incident was in a statistical mechanics course populated by Chem and Physics PhD students, and the second was in the off-sequence majors Gen Chem class at a large western university. He was old-school. Loved his sense of humor, and I always found him friendly and helpful... but even my DH was terrified of him, and claims that I was the only person ever to "get" Dr. Z completely. I was his favorite TA of all time, apparently. Worked for me-- he wrote me a heckuva letter of recommendation later.

Hmm.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.