beccastareyes

Some things I wish the students I grade for would remember:

Always check your work. Always. The most important thing you can learn is not what the right answer is, but how to tell a 'good' answer from a 'bad' one. I had to take off 5 points from 2/3 of the class's test grades today as most of them didn't think that the number they got for the velocity of a quasar was unreasonable. Here's a hint -- getting 2 times the speed of light for a velocity when you work a problem 'classically' probably means you should have taken relativity into account.
RTFQ. Read the questions carefully, especially when you are called to compute two or more simple problems. This generally implies you will do some higher-level thinking on it -- comparing, coming to a conclusion, etc. Finding the right formula to get numbers is only part of the work of being an astronomer (or any career with numbers). Knowing what the hell the numbers mean is the rest of the battle.
RTFQ, part II. If the question gives you a hint, and you don't use it, check your math. If there are two ways to do a problem (say the hard-but-accurate way, or the easy-but-kinda-inaccurate way) always see if the question permits the easy way. If the question says you can use a figure, use the figure if it helps. And, trust me, if the choice is between a nice graph where I can get my numbers, or fighting with the Saha-Boltzman equation, I'll take the graph any day.

Well at least everyone but one person has mastered the use of scientific notation.