D Grade

(I am a teaching assistant for a statistics course. One day, the professor is discussing effect size, represented as ‘Cohen’s D.’)

Professor: “Alright, now an experiments numbers can mean essentially nothing if there’s no effect size. You want a really big D.”

(A few students stifle their snickering. The professor, not catching on, continues.)

Professor: “So I want you all to take a look at this problem, calculate the effect size, and give me the D.”

(There is more snickering.)

Professor: “That means something else, doesn’t it?”