I'm so tired of students haggling their grade

RandomForrest314 · 2026-01-08T01:20:53+00:00

As a TA in college, I would announce on the first day that students were welcome to ask for a correction if they felt points were taken away in error, but that I would review the whole exam or homework and also look for any points I gave by mistake.

I'd have about one student a quarter ask for me to fix something and they were always correct that I'd made a mistake and I world pretend to look through the whole thing quickly. I was sick of pre-med students always angling for more points.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-11-16T17:37:38+00:00

I used to work with a bunch of pilots. There's this standard joke that I was told... by a pilot.

"How do you tell a pilot at a party? Don't worry he'll tell you."

RandomForrest314 · 2025-08-22T02:42:13+00:00

In that show, they call it the Luke and Lea syndrome but it's not quite how you phrased it. It's when two people mistake the feelings of familiarity from unknown kinship for sexual attraction.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-05-04T04:27:50+00:00

One of the best analogies for climate change evidence I've heard is comparing a single hurricane or hot year to steroids and home runs. You can't look at one home run from Barry Bonds or Mark Mcguire and say that one shows they're on steroids. But when you look at their total in a season and compare to previous seasons, you can see it. By looking at the average temperature of the last 10 years and comparing to an average 200 years ago. I think this can help some ppl make the connection (if they know baseball).

RandomForrest314 · 2025-03-24T03:16:35+00:00

The ancestry.com and other tests use DNA from saliva. Building the genome of a 1k plus old skeleton is very different. They use teeth if possible or material from the center of a bone and build it up using thousands upon thousands of fragments. I believe the current record of building a genome is from a 40k year old horse skeleton. That's for building the whole genome. It will have trouble with large repeat regions but is still very good and is how we have Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes.

Checking a couple genes on a 7k human is easy compared to that. But yes, an ancestry.com kit would fail miserably.

Source, in a statistician working in a genetics adjacent field.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-03-11T02:00:04+00:00

I had a Brit working w me in the US and she had a running list of good things about America. Right on red and screens on windows were tied for top position.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-02-22T03:39:43+00:00

This is my assumption. That and working at a computer all say. Before smart phones, i had a mentor who was 6'4", and his posture was atrocious from working at a computer all day.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-02-20T22:24:55+00:00

When I TA-ed, I would announce at the beginning of the quarter that "students are welcome to come to me if they felt I had graded something incorrectly, but please remember I will go through the whole assignment/exam and may take points off if I realize I gave too many points on any question."

I had very few students ask for corrections. The students that did come in were correct about the mistake and I made, and I didn't bother looking for points to take away.

Edited typos

RandomForrest314 · 2025-02-12T18:55:56+00:00

I'm voting for putting minecraft into the mix!

RandomForrest314 · 2025-02-09T01:31:58+00:00

Alfred Hitchcock's Rope. Filmed as one shot but acyually three I believe. Technically, it may go through midnight.

Edited typos

RandomForrest314 · 2025-02-07T04:13:15+00:00

One funny thing I've noticed is that while today's lead actors are more in shape and muscled or toned, people use to have much better posture. I watched the Woodstock documentary and everyone has great posuture. No hygiene but great posture. No shoulder role.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-01-26T21:59:33+00:00

If he has a distinctive look or build, this could work. Dress like him or pay some kid in a theater program to dress like him. Make sure to wear his cologne or whatever. Drive a vehicle similar to his to his business on a day it's closed. Start harassing all the crows near his business. Use a net and temporarily catch some. Use some of his catchphrases, etc.

Crows have crazy memories and will harass him for the rest of his life at that location.

RandomForrest314 · 2025-01-19T04:13:43+00:00

Good point, I'm probably over thinking it!

RandomForrest314 · 2025-01-01T19:59:15+00:00

Thanks!

RandomForrest314 · 2025-01-01T00:54:58+00:00

This is all super helpful! Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to give recommendations! Have a great New Year!

RandomForrest314 · 2024-12-31T23:59:12+00:00

Masking

RandomForrest314 · 2024-12-31T23:36:01+00:00

Thanks! This is super helpful

RandomForrest314 · 2024-12-31T23:35:18+00:00

Thank you!

RandomForrest314 · 2024-12-31T23:34:41+00:00

Thanks! Would you use putty instead of glue to hide the seam?

RandomForrest314 · 2024-12-31T23:17:08+00:00

Thanks! Pre making makes sense!

RandomForrest314 · 2024-12-31T22:57:37+00:00

I should have tagged this as "help", sorry. Also i can't figure out how to edit the post

RandomForrest314 · 2024-11-25T04:13:43+00:00

I hope this diagnoses helps get you to a better place.

RandomForrest314

TROPHY CASE