• ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    I had an organic chemistry class in college where the average grade was a C. I was a chemistry major and I passed with a D. A couple of other would-be chemistry majors dropped the class. The professor actually told us that we were the worst group of students he had ever taught (and it was his last class before retirement).

    I don’t think he was a bad teacher, because I certainly was a bad student.

    Also he talked about the need to cut down on burning fossil fuels, but less due to environmental concerns and more due to the lost opportunity to make plastics and other interesting substances out of them.

    • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
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      8 months ago

      love the completely unhinged take of “we need to reduce fossil fuel use so I can use all the crude oil to make weird stuff”

    • Almonds@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      My organic chemistry prof was equally weird about synthesis. But his ego rested on everyone passing, in contrast to the biology prof who failed half the students in her classes. She was the better teacher. I don’t remember much from my second semester of o chem because I didn’t really need to learn anything to get an A, but I have retained quite a lot from her classes

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Maybe it’s just chemistry professors. I had one try to expel me for plagiarism because my lab partner and I had the same measurements on our lab reports (no overlap other than the numbers, which weren’t open to a lot of interpretation). You know, because we had the same experiment.

        Luckily, part of the process was sitting down with the professor and the head of the department, and as soon as the professor explained what the problem was, the dean rolled his eyes, asked why my professor didn’t even report both of us, and told me someone else in the department would grade my exam, then let me leave.