Science FAIL.

Back in my undergraduate degree I did Chemistry. I found the lectures pretty interesting for the most part but the practical lab parts a bit dull, mostly due to all the calculations. I had a fairly nice lab partner, though I decided in my head that his name didn't suit him and he seemed more like an Andrew. So I spent most of the time trying to remember his real name and not to call him Andrew. 

[pic via here]

Chemistry definitely wasn't my best subject, and I was mostly only taking it because it was a pre-requisite for some other courses. Anyway, the day came for us to do an exam in the lab. It required us doing a variety of tests to work out the mystery chemical we were given. We had to do it alone, and in silence. Well I started off OK, but five minutes into it, I realised that I had accidentally put some of the test ingredients in the original sample. This meant I had contaminated it, and had no actual way from then of working out what the mystery chemical was. Now, I am definitely not what you call an assertive person, and I was quite afraid of looking like a total goober in front of my parter and all the other people in the lab. Too scared to tell anyone, I just pottered around pretending to do tests for the rest of the time, and looking like I was deep in thought or working out calculations whenever an examiner walked past. Clearly, I should have just told someone, and although I would have looked silly for a few minutes it probably would have been better than spending the whole rest of the exam in sheer panic. Obviously I made up my answer at the end of the test. When my partner asked how I went I'm pretty sure I said: "yeah not too bad"!

I'd like to say I fluked it and got it right, but the title of this post isn't 'Science Fail' for nothing.