People Share The Dumbest Thing They've Ever Written On A Test That Was Somehow Still A Valid Answer

Taking a written exam is like deliberately entering a fugue state.
Under beaming fluorescent lights, pen in hand, you flip the paper over and feast your eyes on on of the more stressful inanimate objects out there.
You blast through the questions and give the best answers possible. Hopefully you're prepared and the experience isn't pure panic and quickened breath.
But even if you did prepare it could still happen: you draw a blank.
You stare at a question and you haven't the faintest clue what to say. You stare for minutes, look around at the other poor saps also under the gun, and reread the question roughly 87 times in a row.
You have to write something, anything. And maybe, on the off chance, you'll guess right.
JXSTYLES asked, "What's the dumbest thing you wrote in a test that ended up being valid?"
About Sums it Up
"In tenth grade I was taking a test on All Quiet on the Western Front. One of the questions was an essay question."
"It read: 'In as few words as possible, summarize the main theme of the book.'"
"I responded: 'War sucks.'"
"I was correct."
-- CDC_
Social Capital
"I was in the gifted program through elementary and high school. With that label attached to me, teachers assumed I was pretty smart (I was a good student as well so I wasn't just riding on the gifted label)."
"Anyway, I had really messy cursive writing."
"Once, for a fill in the blanks question, I didn't know the answer for one space. I had everything else right, so I looked like I knew what I was talking about."
"Well, my writing was so messy that for the one answer where I wasn't sure, I just put a random scribble down. Not even letters - just the unhinged flow of my unguided fingers."
"My teacher just assumed I wrote down the right answer and I got perfect for that section"
Case and Point
"I remember I had a timed essay I had to write about hubris (basically just a high ego) in some books. (I believe Frankenstein, Lord of the Flies, and Twelfth Night)."
"I had the hook line just be, 'This is the best essay ever written in the entire world, containing the best grammar, the best evidence, and the best analyses.' 'That sentence right there, is hubris.'"
"The title was also 'The Best Essay Ever.' I got probably my best essay grade then, somehow."
-- NJHarsh
Smart Alec
"Jim is making cakes and he has 1050 grams of butter. Each cake needs 25g of butter so how many cakes can he make?"
"None. He doesn't have any other ingredients to make the cakes."
-- mrcuboid56
Equal Parts Valid and Snarky
"Music exam. 'Name similarities and differences between these two pieces of music'"
"Two Audio files are played to the room"
"I write, 'both make me want to stab this pen in my ears' instead of the expected analysis of structure and musicality."
"I get the exam back with one mark on that question and the note, 'valid opinion bassed comparison, but do try to be more polite next time'"
Ageless Wisdom
"We were doing an exam in 8th grade and I couldn't think of a single piece of evidence (personal anecdote, quote, historical example, statistic, etc.) to add to my essay."
"So what did I do? Make one up."
"I believe my quote was along the lines of 'something something climbing the ladder of success something something the rungs are made of your goals -unknown ancient Roman author.' I thought for sure I was going to fail."
"At lunch the teachers called me into the lounge."
"I thought oh sh**. I'm in trouble."
"Turns out they called me in there to discuss that I got a perfect score and said they were all talking about my essay all day and that it was the best one they'd ever seen. I was in shock."
"Then the dreaded moment came. 'Where'd you get that quote from??'"
"'Uhm... I made it up because I thought I was going to fail' I thought my a** was gonna be sent home or something but instead they all just laughed. It would've been funny to me too but my anxiety said no."
-- bleujjay
Ahead of Their Time
"In a human biology test, there was a question that asked what viruses were useful for. It was meant to be a trick question, and the answer was meant to be that they weren't useful for anything."
"I wrote that they might be used to cure genetic problems."
"And they are. Now."
"I was right, they were wrong, I want my point."
A Fellow Fan
"There's a Calvin and Hobbes strip where he answers a question like 'It would be against my religious principles to answer this question.'"
"I wrote that under a question that I was baffled by. It was not valid, but the teacher knew the comic and threw me a half-credit on it."
-- elevenghosts
Bold Move
"Had to do a German verbal exam. Learned a few handy phrases to bail me out - so near the end after muddling through I had a question I just didn't understand a word of."
"So busting out my final piece I confidently responded (in German) 'That, is a stupid question'"
"The examiner paused, then laughed out loud, said something I took to mean 'yes I guess it is' then scribbled something on her paper."
"Never did find out what the question was."
-- hennell
Never Wrong
"Back in middle school, there was a kid in my religion class who developed a stupid strategy."
"Every time he didn't know the answer to a question on the tests, he would write 'God is always the answer.' It hurt me to see him have that work more than twice."
-- Koca-Soda
Just as Long as High School Class Period
"'What was the duration of the shortest war in history?'"
"I wrote '40 mins' on impulse, partly as a joke."
"I was right."
"During the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896, the East African island state Zanzibar fought back against the British Empire. The fighting began at 9 a.m. on August 26 and ended by 9:40 a.m., making the world's shortest war a mere 40 minutes long."
"We had a teacher who always said 'write something.'"
"My friend wrote 'something' and got half credit and a smiley face."
Untestable
"In college, in a logic class - the very difficult question started out with 'In your opinion........' I answered that I did not have to complete the question as my opinion is personal to me and therefore not open to judgement in an exam."
"I got full credit."
-- Mike-ipedia
Way Too Fun for Hepatitis
"I wrote 'hepatitis is a virus that will make your liver quiver. It can travel through your blood like a salmon swims up river.' On a short answer portion of the exam."
"I thought I was bombing that exam so by the time that question came along I was like meh might as well have a lil fun. I ended up getting an 88! Way better than I thought I would."
-- theWildBore
H. Truman
"I wrote my entire AP US History essay on 'Henry Truman' instead of 'Harry Truman' and still got a perfect score."
"I was shocked and to this day wonder if the grader actually didn't catch the mistake or if they allowed it because the rest of the essay was accurate. Shrug"
-- 268458
The Historical Figure Approach
"Went to a Christian high school and we were all required to take this one biblical class. One of the assignments was writing an essay on 'Who Jesus is to us.'"
"As an atheist, I knew I should have made something up but I decided to write about how he was just another carpenter in history to me."
"Thought for sure my hardcore Christian teacher was going to fail me or give me the minimum to past."
"Ended up with an A."
-- librarytower
It's Tough Out There
"In 9th grade English we were supposed to read the book 'The most dangerous game' I being a slacker of course did not read it and didn't have time to get the spark notes version before we had to write an essay on it."
"The question was 'In your opinion what is the most dangerous game?'"
"I wrote a two page paper about Ice Hockey."
"My teacher said that technically i wasn't wrong because it was an opinion question but clearly i hadn't read the book."
-- Ayy0hh
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.