Friday, September 6, 2013

A. None of the above. B. All of the above. C. What is the above. D. The teacher is crazy.

Heated conversation with one of my children in the Yukon Cornelius (whose AC is broken - thank you 112 degree "fall" weather) after he/she told me he/she got an "F" on a quiz.

Me:  So what exactly was the problem because an "F" was certainly not the first grade I was expecting you to get on a quiz the second week of school?  Was this review???  

(I did exhibit extreme self-control by not ending with, "FOR GOD'S SAKE.")

Child:  Well, the quiz was only 10 questions.  I legitimately got three wrong.  But, the fourth one just didn't make any sense.

Me:  How do you mean?

Child:  Well, the answers made no sense.

Me:  How do you mean?

Child:  Well, the correct answer was "None of the above."

Me:  So, what's weird about that?  By this time you should be familiar with answers such as:  None of the above, All of the above, A and C, B and D, F and F!, I mean B and C.

Child:  Well, here's the thing, "None of the above" is usually the last answer.  This "None of the above" was the first answer.  Y'know? 

Me:  Like it was A?

Child:  Yeah.

Me:  Well, did  you know that all the other answers were wrong?

Child:  Yeah, weird, but I did actually know that.

('Weird' indeed.)

Me:  So, wouldn't it have made sense that none of the answers were right?  Like, "None of the above," implies?

Child:  Well, no because there was nothing above the "None of the above" except for the previous question.  It should have said, "None of the below."

Me:  So, what did you mark?

Child:  One of the wrong answers.  And I got it wrong!  Can you believe that?  If you ask me that's just crazy.  The teacher's just crazy.  "None of the above" wasn't technically the right answer.

Me:  *Banging my sweaty head on the steering wheel.*

10 comments:

Shannon said...

kinda with the kiddo on this, it said none of the above, and there was nothing above it so technically all the answers were wrong. OF course he the child hadn't missed the other 3 questions it would be a mute point.

Nomads By Nature said...

Love it! I totally get where she is coming from on this one!

Gorilla Bananas said...

Child is correct, it was a duff question. There has to be something 'above' for it to be 'none of the above'.

Megly Mc said...

It's time he learned that teachers drink, too. Maybe that's the lesson he needed this semester.

-A teacher.

:)

jamiew said...

i too see kid's point, but Megly Mc (see above) has the correct response.

(see how i did ^that ^)

Anonymous said...

I'm with the kid, too. And now I have a great idea for the next test I'm going to give my students. This could be a fun social experiment...
~whatimeant2say

Monica said...

I like your thinking, megly mc that the "lesson" was that "teachers drink, too." indeed. and what a valuable lesson, eh? @whatimeant2say - i'm happy (?) that at the very least his "F" could contribute to a social experiment.

Kellie @ Delightfully Ludicrous said...

Sounds like a lawyer in the making to me! I can't fault that logic!

Monica said...

@kellie - hubby says, "he's either going to be a good lawyer, or need a good lawyer." ;o)

Unknown said...

I see the point ... I mean, honestly, there does have to be something above ... this makes me wonder how SATs are going to go ....