Every graduate student has a fair share of funny TA moments, but hearing these tales is nothing compared to actually experiencing them first hand. This past Friday was the very first midterm of our first semester organic chemistry course for non-chemistry majors. The TAs celebrated this historical event by spending 10.5 hours in lock-down mode, grading. True to the optimistic spirit of our department, a friend shared with us some of the highlight of her day:

“Texas carbon to the max” “The elusive Canadian Nitrogen- it has almost TWO full octets” “Yes, nitrogen has 4 2p orbitals” “Where did H come from?”

And my personal favorite:

“[Professor] Frechet’s quote after he saw this: “This person is going to go far in life””

On the topic of funny undergraduate responses, my post-doc mentor shared his most unforgettable memory from the good ol’ days of graduate school at yet another very prestigious public institution.

Q: “Which solvent would be more likely to facilitate an SN2 reaction, H2O or DMSO? Explain.”

A: “H2o. Because clearly, DMSO is not a real molecule.”

What’s your best TA story? 🙂

Noel