Thursday, September 25, 2008

bet you can't guess where I used to work

So I was sitting in Soc2205a today, and realized that I'm not the slowest person in the world. albeit, I do have my blonde moments, my Alzheimer moments, and not to mention my Loey moments. I didn't think it could get worse. But, alas, there are times where I am mistaken. Take, for example, the middle section of the classroom. The professor is explaining how to find the mean based on the information given by a simple chart.
Girl: "I don't understand. Where did you get '20' from?"
Prof: - Right here, in the frequency column.
Girl: "I know, but there are 4 rows, how do you know which number to take?"
Prof: - You're looking for how many people got a B on their physics exam, which falls under this column *points to B column* and so now you look at the frequency column, and it says '20'."
Girl: "Okay... but how do you know it's 20 and not another number?"
Honestly? He just told you...

Example 2:
The professor is writing out a formula to figure out the refined mean of the information presented in the data. He explains every single part of the equation (what symbols mean, and where you can find them in the chart), and yet this conversation occurs:
Girl: "What does 'L' mean?"
Prof: - Lower exact limit
Girl: "In the text book it says 'LEL', is that the same thing?"
Prof: - Don't use the formulas given in the textbook, they overcomplicate things by given abbreviations that have more than one letter, which if you plug into a formula look like you're supposed to multiply them, when there is only one number for that symbol. And every year, there are some students who try to multiple the letters together and get the wrong answer, because it doesn't exist.
Girl: "Okay."
Prof: - I'm giving you the simplest way to write the equation so that there is the elast amount of confusion as possible.
Girl: "But the textbook says..."
Prof: - Forget what the textbook says. You have to do it exactly the way I told you to, or else you're going to screw up.
Pretty straight forward, right? Wrong! That conversation was followed up by this one:
Prof: - You look like you don't believe me. I'm telling you the same thing I've been telling you for the past hour and a half.
Girl: "No. I believe you. I don't doubt that I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure if I understand what I'm thinking."
Prof: - ...
What?! Seriously. I thought I was retardedly slow and stupid and didn't have a filter on things that came out of my mouth. But I guess I've been proven wrong again. And this time it feels so good =P

So I leave you with this funny quote from my absolutely hilarious, and yet patient, statistics professor:
"In order to find the median... we have to turn off the lights."
- Professor Marshall, Soc 2205a

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