# Clever student writes two words and passes exam with an A **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 8, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122 "2007-01-08T04:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bafaa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@bafaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bafaa)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/61 "2007-01-08T19:29:54Z")
[QUOTE=GusNSpot] I was teaching a class at an Aviation mechanics school in 1969 when a class came through that was really sharp, and smart ass and plain fun. They were all going to get A’s for that month. So, on the second to last test I did the “Read the whole test before answering any questions.” sentence in the instructions. The last question was the, “What is your name? Fill it in and hand in the paper without answering any of the questions.” statement. … [/QUOTE] I had a teacher do something very similar in high school! She had been going on about how you should always read tests all the way through before starting. So I did and came across something about only having to answer the first X questions and then you can leave. I looked up at her with a look that said “Really?” and she gave me a knowing nod. I did the required number of questions (less than half the total) handed my test in and left. Other students were like: “Wow! Baffa finished already!” That’s actually the only good memory I have of that teacher and I had completely forgotten about it. Maybe she wasn’t all bad after all…nah. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/62 "2007-01-08T20:11:02Z")
I had an interesting assistant professor for philosophy 101. He often came into class a little wasted and got into bar fights. He was still a pretty good teacher and I enjoyed his class and studied hard for the final. I was dismayed when I saw that the major essay question did not cover any ground I had studied. I put up my had and said “this is not what I studied.” He answered “then write your own question and answer it.” Which I did and got a good mark 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/63 "2007-01-08T20:18:12Z")
I always love to tell one of my moments of genius. In an advanced calc class, the prof was famous for giving nearly impossible tests to actually get a high percentage on. But he used the format of making a ten part test, but each part built on the the previous part, i.e. the answer for part a was the starting point for part b etc. But he gave full credit if you got the part right, based on what you started with and each was worth 3 points. I looked at part 1. and it was a nasty Green’s theorem, chain rule mostrosity that was supposed to end up something like. (x[sup]6[/sup]+34yx[sup]4[/sup]+123y[sup]2[/sup]x[sup]3[/sup]+56y[sup]4[/sup]x[sup]2[/sup]-16y[sup]4[/sup]x[sup]3[/sup]+9y[sup]5[/sup]x[sup][/sup]+8y[sup]6[/sup] +c) Anyway after a while working through it I realized that figuring out part 1 would take most of the two hours, so I started figuring out how to make feasable mistakes until I ended up with an answer of (x[sup]2[/sup] +c). The rest of the test was a breeze with something that simple and I got a 25/30 on the test(the bastard actually gave me -2 on part 1 because in his words “Never have I seen a student in this class make so many mistakes on a single problem” 😉 ). About one third of the class never got done with part 1, and got 2/30 for effort on it, and the rest of the class ended up between 3 and 12 out of 30. He was forced to offer a retest by the Math department chair, but I was happy with my grade. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/64 "2007-01-08T20:50:20Z")
**McNew** , that was a scene in Slackers. Of course, it could’ve been a UL first, or actually happened somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Smooth\_Jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Smooth\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smooth_Jack)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/65 "2007-01-08T20:51:05Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I love this one (so it’s nice to see it twice.) They worked it into an episode of Veronica Mars this season - worked perfectly and I didn’t even see it coming until Logan reached for the stack of blue books and shoved his in the middle. His character can be a pompous ass, and he’s infamous in that town, as well as the son of a famous actor, so the “Do you know who I _am_?” was completely believable. [/QUOTE] I saw that episode. At the time I thought, what’s keeping the teacher from having each student collect their paper in person? He’d figure out which one was Logan’s eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/66 "2007-01-08T20:54:30Z")
I’ve heard a story about a guy who was applying to a college with a “write your own question and answer it” essay question. His question was “Do you play the tuba”, and his answer was “no.” Standard disclaimer about it likely being an urban legend ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/67 "2007-01-08T20:54:32Z")
[QUOTE=Smooth Jack] I saw that episode. At the time I thought, what’s keeping the teacher from having each student collect their paper in person? He’d figure out which one was Logan’s eventually. [/QUOTE] I’ve never seen Veronica Mars, but in Slackers a significant portion of the students had left already. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/68 "2007-01-08T21:01:23Z")
[QUOTE=Smooth Jack] I saw that episode. At the time I thought, what’s keeping the teacher from having each student collect their paper in person? He’d figure out which one was Logan’s eventually. [/QUOTE] You mean when he hands them back? Nothing, really, except that it ruins the joke, Mister Joke Ruiner! 😛 (OK, real answer: he certainly could if he wanted to, but it was a big lecture class with over 200 students. Is it worth the time and energy to openly admit to 199 students that one student has balls of steel and outwitted you?) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/69 "2007-01-08T21:03:19Z")
[QUOTE=Bippy the Beardless] [http://www.noise-to-signal.com/2006/02/find\_x.gif](http://www.noise-to-signal.com/2006/02/find_x.gif) Works for me when pasted into a browser (using Firefox 1.5 myself) the original link didn’t work for me. [/QUOTE] That did the trick. Many thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Smooth\_Jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Smooth\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smooth_Jack)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/70 "2007-01-08T21:06:40Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] You mean when he hands them back? Nothing, really, except that it ruins the joke, **Mister Joke Ruiner!** 😛 (OK, real answer: he certainly could if he wanted to, but it was a big lecture class with over 200 students. Is it worth the time and energy to openly admit to 199 students that one student has balls of steel and outwitted you?) [/QUOTE] That’s my other name. Usually, that’s when I’m \*telling \* the joke. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/71 "2007-01-08T21:17:35Z")
[QUOTE=brewha] Since this action causes the brush to be impossible to be retreived, the equipment would either have to be dismantled to replaced. The person that caused the damage would likely be **fired** because of the cost to fix his mistake with the **brush**. Therefore, a brush fire. This is what I took as the meaning. I could be wrong. [/QUOTE] Close. Without going into boring detail, the boiler would indeed be seriously damaged if it were fired up w/ an obstruction in a tube. I, mostly, gave the guy credit for humor and originality. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/72 "2007-01-08T21:30:10Z")
[QUOTE=GusNSpot] So, on the second to last test I did the “Read the whole test before answering any questions.” sentence in the instructions. The last question was the, “What is your name? Fill it in and hand in the paper without answering any of the questions.” statement. [/QUOTE] I got this one in a Freshman English class in college. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/73 "2007-01-08T22:44:20Z")
In ENC 101 the teacher was being incredibly lazy on our essay subjects and gave us the standard type fare: 1. Analyze a public figure 2. What I did on summer vacation 3. Write a book report on any book I’m bored out of my skull with this woman. She really didn’t put any effort into our essay subjects. I’m sitting there trying to figure out how to make it interesting for me anyway. It dawns on me. Michaelangelo’s David is in public and he is a figure of a man. So I write the essay saying such things as “his eyes have seen the world, yet his feet have never moved.” never revealing who it was until the end. I got an A+ with a note saying anyone who can figure out how to write about Michaelangelo in english class deserves an A. I wish I still had the paper, it was quite clever. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/74 "2007-01-08T22:51:19Z")
This happened to a friend in a math class for engineers. A math professor dropped a surprise quiz on students: _“Train 1 leaves City A heading toward City B (120 miles along the track) at a constant speed of 35 mph. Five minutes later, Train 2 leaves City B toward City A at a constant speed of 20 mph. Immediately upon Train 1 leaving, a bird flies toward Train 2 at a constant speed of 60 mph. When it reaches Train 2, it immediately turns around and flies back toward Train 1, and continues to repeat this until the two trains meet. At the end of two and one-half hours, how far has the bird flown?”_ Students begin performing elaborate calculations until one student sat back and said “Oh…” Eventually all the students got the point while the instructor sat there grinning. Two and one-half hours at 60 mph equals 150 miles. The instructors point? Even if there is a complicated way to solve a problem, look for a simple solution. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/75 "2007-01-09T02:26:17Z")
True story. 11th grade English class. We were all assigned an oral report in which we selected a person from history and explained or showed why they were important. Can’t remember if I chose or was assigned Gandhi, but I wasn’t enthusiastic about it and didn’t know how to approach it. I was lamenting this to my very clever friend the day before my presentation. “How am I supposed to demonstrate anything about Gandhi?” I asked forlornly. “Refuse to do the report.” :eek: I sat bolt upright and nearly kissed him. Next day I stood in front of the class, explained that I would NOT be speaking to them about Gandhi because I thought it was an unfair assignment, and that I would accept the consequences for this choice with no resistance. I was already in the doghouse with this teacher. As I sat down I thought I could detect steam coming out of her ears. I got an A. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/76 "2007-01-09T02:56:49Z")
[QUOTE=Plynck] This happened to a friend in a math class for engineers. A math professor dropped a surprise quiz on students: \*"Train 1 leaves City A heading toward City B …etc. etc… [/QUOTE] The only problem with your spoilered “easy way” answer is that it’s wrong. The trains meet before the two and a half hours are up, thus stopping the bird short of your mark (the question implies that the bird stops when the trains meet.) Some variation on the “hard way” is necessary to compute that time. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/77 "2007-01-09T03:28:12Z")
Grade 7 or 8, compound vs single interest (or tax) rates. “Store A has a red shirt for sale at Y$ with (whatever compound tax) and store B has a yellow shirt for sale at X$ with (another single rate) - which shirt would you buy” One student answers “The red one. I don’t like yellow” He got full marks. My brother’s friend started a joke “tradition” in one history class. They were discussing the first settlers in North America (well, Québec and Canada) and the teacher asked what traits would these people need to have to survive. Various answers like “being able to build a house” and “being a good farmer” were offered, and then D answered “charisma”. After the expected laugh from the class and perplexed look from the teacher, he explained… “you’d need to be charismatic if you needed to borrow a cup of sugar from the neighbours during a bad winter”. Since then, that teacher has used a “charismatic” answer in a quiz ever since! (Ok, so it loses something in the transcription!) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/78 "2007-01-09T03:53:52Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] …One student answers “The red one. I don’t like yellow” He got full marks… [/QUOTE] Hey, that’s just what I was going to answer! I must be smarter than I look. ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/79 "2007-01-09T05:11:26Z")
Shekar Siddarth, the student who filmed George Allen making the famous “Macaca” remark, applied into a Campaigns and Elections class at the University of Virginia, where students who want to take the course outnumber slots four to one. Most students write long essays to the professor about their experiences with campaigns, what they can contribute to the course, the meaning of politics, and so on. Siddarth wrote three words: “I am macaca.” [He got in.](http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/16/sidarth/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122/80 "2007-01-09T05:51:05Z")
[QUOTE=TimeWinder] The only problem with your spoilered “easy way” answer is that it’s wrong. The trains meet before the two and a half hours are up, thus stopping the bird short of your mark (the question implies that the bird stops when the trains meet.) Some variation on the “hard way” is necessary to compute that time. [/QUOTE] I don’t know if **Plynck** reproduced the actual question with the correct numbers, but it may be that the actual question had slightly different numbers. **Plynck** ’s numbers indicate the two trains meet just a little over two hours (assuming I calculated it correctly), and it’s possible that the numbers on the actual test were designed to make them meet in 2.5 hours. Regardless, I think that the trains wind up being irrelevant to the question; all that needs be known is that the bird is flying at a constant rate of 60 mph for 2.5 hours. I had one of those trick tests sprung on me way back in the 6th grade, but it was worded as ‘Read every question before answering,’ IIRC, instead of ‘Read the entire test before answering’. I interpreted it as reading a question fully, answering it, and moving on. Needless to say, I wasn’t one of the clever dicks who saw the final question of ‘Sign your name, don’t answer any of the above questions, and fold your arms to signal that you’ve finished.’ No, I don’t hold a grudge against my teacher, why? 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-student-writes-two-words-and-passes-exam-with-an-a/387122.md?page=5)