mmm, soap at pH 1

Today's "fantastic" exam paper answer of the day:
Question - State one large-scale use of sulphuric acid.
Student's answer - "Soap".

Yes, I wash my face in sulphuric acid every day. That's why my skin is so red and dry. But it's great for removing grease and oils!

I am currently quite annoyed with this student, because she's been giving me 3 or 4 past papers per week, each of which is so appallingly rushed that it gives no insight as to her ability or the grade she'll achieve in the actual exam. When a 60 mark paper loses 10 marks through careless mistakes and another 10 through vague wording (when I'm sure she understands the concepts really), that's not going to get more than a C unless the grade boundaries are ridiculously low due to Extreme Hardness. An exam of one hour should be attempted in one hour, and if she finishes in 35 minutes then the remaining time should be used for checking. Argh!

( More moaning, with possible advice to people sitting written exams. )

LOLchemistry

ARGH will these students STOP with the pentavalent carbons already! I need to find a cat, plus the black trigonal bipyramidal atoms from my molecular modelling kit. I will make a molecule of the "carbon" with 5 bonds. And then I will place the cat by the pentavalent carbon and take a photo. The top caption should be OH NOES! TOO MANY BONDS, and the bottom caption should be NO MOAR PENTAVALENT CARBONS PLS.

...now I need a cat. One that isn't too special to eat the molecule. The pieces are pretty small and could easily be NOMed. Hmmm.

Anyone got a cat and a molecular modelling kit?