Professor Gives Full Marks To Student Answering All Questions With "Something To Do With Doubly Degenerate Energy Levels"

Somewhere, SA

Inorganic Chemistry Professor David Johnson at the University of Alabama reportedly awarded full marks on a mid-term exam, recently proctored to his CHEM301 students, to undergraduate Sydney Harrison after she reportedly answered some variation of "something to do with doubly degenerate energy levels" in response to every single question on the exam.

A stunned Professor Johnson spoke to the press early this morning to recount the events leading up to the perfectly-scored exam.  "My TA [graduate student Aaron Michelson] was going over the exam while I was working on a grant application.  He called my office line and said there was an issue with one of the exams."

"I took a look at the exam, and she [Sydney Harrison] has hastily written something along the lines of 'because of T1g degeneracy' or 'due to degenerate energy levels' for every single question.  I mean, she's not wrong."

"And that's when I realized that degenerate modes was indeed a perfectly adequate answer to the entirety of the exam."

"That's when I went back to look for other anomalies, and interestingly, 'the Jahn-Teller effect' would have also been an acceptable answer to every question," Johnson added.