My First Guest Post

My co-writer on the currently-dormant (but not-quite-dead) SleepingPoliceman, jz, had a story to tell me recently. Being an occasional commenter in this space (as the simply monikered "Joseph"), jz knows the format of how I approach things. Since his re-entrenchment in the academic world has separated him from his blogging life, I wanted to give him the chance to get back out there with the first ever Awesome/Not Awesome Guest Post. (Sponsorship pending.)

I hope you enjoy.

From: jz
To: ptm

So last night I had my statistics final. About half and hour into the exam, the teacher announces to the class that none of the potential answers to question #24 were correct. Just do the problem, and show your work and he'll grade the question accordingly. Which was perfect timing, because I had been going over the question for about five minutes, trying to see what I'd done wrong and why my answer wasn't option A, B, C, or D (multiple choice exam).

A few minutes later, one of the students goes up to the front of the class to ask a question about #24. All the class hears is the teacher saying, "No, that's not right. I just did it, and the answer's not there. Go back and try it again. And just show your work."

The kid goes back to his desk. The teacher looks straight at me.

Professor: Did you do #24 yet?
Me: Yeah.
Professor: Let me see it.

So in front of the entire class, I had to get up and show the professor my exam so that the he could make sure his answer was correct.

We both had the same answer.

If the class didn't already hate me (my grades on each of the four exams in the class were: 96, 94, 97, and 97), they certainly did after that point.

Why I am awesome: the teacher and the entire class know that I fucking own statistics.

Why I am not awesome: turns out the kid was correct, and both the professor and I had made the exact same math mistake and the answer was, in fact, there all along.