At least one fewer tutorial lengthens the odds

After observing the first lecture for the Intro course I will be tutoring, I have come up with a mental shortlist of students I am hoping will not be in my classes:

1. The student who fell asleep within 10 minutes of the start, not even bothering to try and keep her head off the desk.

2. The student who raised her hand eagerly every time ScaryLecturer asked a rhetorical question (and often enough when he didn't).

3. The student who referred to a web browser as "that thing that lets you type words into a sort of slit and then it takes you to things that aren't on your computer" (I can tell he is going to have fun with the electronic tutorial sign-up, not to mention that his essays are going to be articulate).

4. The student who, when answering a question in class, made a (possibly unintentionally) inappropriate remark about me.*

5. The student who ScaryLecturer described as "practically suicidal" with anxiety about the course material.

6. The student who has already come to see me twice today about minor questions to do with administrative matters, when the only person who can actually answer his questions is ScaryLecturer -- not to mention that my office hours haven't even started yet.

Unfortunately, students three through six in that list are the same person. And since, as I've mentioned before, I always attract the crazies, I can just tell he's going to sign up for my class.

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* Please note: one moment of not thinking about how something will sound before it came out of your mouth is perfectly understandable. We've all been there (although maybe not in front of 108 fellow students). It does not mean you have "screwed up so badly already, the only option is to drop the course right now". And coming to see me and ScaryLecturer individually to ask if this is the case is only going to guarantee that we both remember you. In the negative sense.


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