Why UCR students suck...

[vicbabe]

Because their physics lab TAs don't know what sig figs are. I shit you not. A fellow grad student of mine (who's been TAing lab for almost a year now), admitted to me that he didn't know how to do sig figs, and asked me to explain them.

Comments

[cubetime]

Well, at least he was willing to admit it.

[vicbabe]

But he admitted it in a nonchalant sort of way, like it was no big deal that he didn't know sig figs, and that he's taught 120 undergrads to have the same standards.

[romanish]

He probably thought it was more complicated than it really is. I mean...it's pretty much common sense, right?

[vicbabe]

You'd be suprised. It's the third week of lab, and about half of my students still get them wrong.

[bearddevil]

Kill them. Kill them all. To three sig figs.

[macdaddyfrosh]

You are 8.63% dead!

/bash bash bash

10.7%!

[romanish]

In general, I'm in favor of asking intelligent questions when you don't understand something you're learning.

But at some point, if you realize you may not understand something fundamental that you really should know, the first thing you should do is not mention it to anyone else. The second thing is look it up on google. The last thing you should do is ask your fellow grad student, who then makes it known to everyone else how stupid you are.

Thanks for sharing your story. It was amusing :)