I'd have picked C too. I like to be precise about my money and who cares about the baskets in a basketball game????? ROFL!!!! (sorry all you sports fans out there!)

I'd have frozen up completely! Both B and C matter!

Those are the ones that I would go up to ask the teacher about when I was a kid, and I'd get the answer back that was along the lines of, "Don't think too hard" or something.

I'd probably have gotten to basketball by realizing that adults think kids' money doesn't count, while at a sporting event, the adults care far more than the kids about the score! And adults are writing the tests, ergo...Basketball it is!

I really think the key is in the trivial nature of the pennies....but I agree with ELH "to the penny"! The "piggy bank" also adds to the unimportance perhaps? Remember these are 8th graders, not 2nd graders.

I'm guessing too that the basketball one was worded a little more "professionally", with a bigger focus on the scoring, but who knows?

Thank you ladies for the great "disclaimer" though. If DD13 gets anything less than perfect on the math section, we'll just assume it was this question, ROFL!

I still think it was better suited for a verbal question. DD13 said it came right after a problem that really involved some heavy duty number crunching.

Funny sharing....

DS has been grading papers for months now. I don't care, as he really seems to enjoy the responsibility/experience. Today though he said he noticed that most kids got the same one wrong (him included), so he pointed it out to the teacher. Turns out, the answer key was wrong!

I was amused by the fact that DS seems more "attentive" than most teachers, LOL!

Ha - that's a cute story Dottie. I bet he loved that!

Good for your DS for finding the mistake and good for him checking with the teacher instead of letting it go. I bet he did love it!!

DD8 lives to bust the teacher. I'm surprised they like her so much.

Oh yeah, he was tickled!

Last year's math teacher...the one who called DS "not her best student" (I'm pretty sure his recent SAT was higher, ) told me how she made mistakes on purpose, and encouraged the kids to point them out. Then she mentioned that DS enjoyed that just a little too much, finding unintentional ones as well. Hey...you asked lady! I can still picture her shock when we suggested skipping 5th grade math....

........what a bitter little pill!

Not my favorite kind of teacher.

She was actually quite nice, and very welcoming of DS in her classroom, so I can't complain. In hindsight though, she is presently the one who got DS the least. His teachers this year though just adore him!