As of this evening, General Chem is done. Two months of “drinking from the firehose”, which means roughly a year of general Chem at a traditional college or university. Although, if I was taking this at a traditional university, I think I’d have to say “Dude, I am so done with Chemistry.” Or even, “I am hella done with Chemistry.”
The final exam this afternoon provided a wonderful punctuation on the end of class. After two hours, I finally finished the test, gave it to the professor and started quietly gathering my things to leave. As I’m assembling my gear, he comes to me and softly asks, “Can you show me how you solved problem 25?” At this point, I’m hyped up from a triple mocha on an empty stomach, still nervous from the test and simultaneously relieved to be done. So, I’m twitchy and edgy and a little spastic. But, I fumble for my test, find the appropriate problem, re-read it to refresh my memory and then start walking him through how I solved it. He follows along, nodding, asking an occasional question, but mostly following along. Then he says with a frown, “Hrm. Well, that looks good, but I did it a slightly different way and got a different answer.” He pulls from his back pocket a napkin where he has worked out his solution to the problem. Okay, I see where his approach goes a slightly different direction, but it still looks cool. I’m following along, and sure enough, there’s his answer, and it’s not the one I got. Damn. I’m looking, looking, double checking… “Oh, wait! You solved for X, but in your setup for the problem, you set the concentration of 2HI to 2X. So, multiply X by 2 and that’s the right answer.” He looks at me, looks at the problem again, then looks at me. “Huh. You’re right. Thank you very much.” And he corrects his answer key and shakes my hand.
Dude, I schooled the prof! I rule! 🙂
I waited until I got home to check my test against the key. It looks a lot like I aced the test, which makes me pretty giddy. Or maybe it’s the caffeine. Or just the relief at being done. Either way, it’s a pretty good buzz.
I’m done, I’m done! Who wants to go play this week? Movie? Dinner? Tahoe? Drop me an e-mail!
(Of course, Organic Chem starts next weekend. But I’m not thinking about that yet. I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you…)
Yay for you, teaching the prof how to do his job. And yay for acing the test!
Dude. You Schooled The Professor.
Conratulations! Especially, in my mind, because I never understood chemistry one bit! Extra extra props from me!
Thank you!
I was very insecure about the subject, going into the class. I never even took it in high school, so I just assumed it was going to be really hard and that I would struggle with it. And it has been work, no doubt, but I’ve done well with it, and have enjoyed the journey considerably.
Now I’m in the process of psyching myself out over Organic Chem. 🙂 We’ll see how I feel about it in two months.
Well, as a survivor of our high school’s chemistry class, I can assure you that it did indeed suck rocks through a bendy straw. 🙂
I had to see the “grinning” userpic to figure out who you were, and now I feel like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. When the penny dropped, it dropped hard, though. Drop me a line and we’ll catch up!
Well, duh, you started with 2HI so you have to multiply X by 2.
Um, yeah. Sure. When you say it that way it’s so obvious. ::glancing down and looking at my shoes.:::
Way to go sir, but I have no friggin idea what you’re talking about. 🙂 Good for you!
–Gordon