Not Making The Grade

(All teachers must give baseline assessments at the beginning of the year containing information that will be covered that year, and then give another similar test at the end to gauge how much the students learned. The students are not graded on their work, because they’re basically taking tests on materials they haven’t learned yet. Good luck explaining that to them, though:)

Teacher: “Make sure you put your name on this, and don’t worry; if you see information you don’t know, leave it blank or take an educated guess. This won’t count toward your grade.”

Student #1: “It’s being graded?!”

Teacher: “Nope, this is just an assessment to see what you may already know, or may have covered in middle school.”

Student #2: “I’m gonna fail! I don’t know any of this!”

Teacher: “I promise you won’t fail. You’re not getting a grade. This is for me only.”

Student #3: “Oh, man, I don’t want this to be graded.”

Teacher: “It won’t. I promise. It’s going to be just fine. Now, make sure that you put your name on both the test and the answer key—”

Student #4: “I can’t believe we’re getting a test before we’ve learned this stuff. I’m gonna bomb.”

Teacher: “It’s not getting graded. It’s just for me to gauge your progress.”

(She finishes handing out the papers and tells them to begin. Five minutes later…)

Student #5: “Wait, this is getting GRADED?!”

Teacher: *facepalm*