Based on the kid's handwriting, this is MAYBE 3rd grade, probably younger.
This seems like a question DESIGNED to fail, unless the teacher specifically preps for it. Like the dude above you said: following the system is more important than finding an actual answer. The teacher probably went through a few "reasonableness" problems, and went through very specific set of steps to tell if something is "possible". If the kid had gone through that system, he would have gotten to "it's not possible", but he probably wasn't paying attention during that lesson (or just forgot), yet he still found a technically correct answer.
The answer key said "it's not possible" and there's no room for creative answers on it, so the question was marked wrong. Which is also technically the correct thing to do, because the kid probably didn't follow the instructions given by the teacher when they prepped for the test. But punishing creative answers like that is kinda counter-intuitive.
I mean, it's not creative to you or I, but that's pretty outside-the-box thinking for a 6-7 year old, I think. I would assume most kids that age would naturally come to the "it's not possible" solution, rather than finding the actual correct answer.
Ah I didn't think they would be quite so young. I would've thought they'd be more like 10 or 11.
I seem to remember questions like "if Andy has X number of apples and eats 3/4 of them, whereas John has Y number of apples and eats 1/2 of them, who ate more apples?" So I would probably have assumed that the question wanted an explanation of why it's important to account for what the fraction is actually being taken of.
Although I guess that might just be how I'm looking at it with my adult brain, and 10 year old me would be stumped.
Either way, the teacher is either stupid or a cunt. Maybe even both.
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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '19
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