Wrong Test

It was Friday at the middle school. One of the things the teacher had left for me was to pass out tests to the students who had been absent for the test. They could make up the test during class.

Fourth period. I gave the one boy his test, and he went to another class to complete it. He returned in a reasonable amount of time and returned the test to me. I put it in the pile with the others. We continued with class.

Time passed and it was the end of the period. The class was done with the day's work. The boy asked me if he could see his test. He thought it might be the wrong one. The girl sitting next to him was going to check. So, I pulled out his test and brought it to him.

The boy was suspicious because the test wasn't that hard, yet his classmates had told him that it was a killer.

Fourth period was marine biology. The other periods were 7th grade life science. Marine biology is an elective that the 8th graders can take.

When we looked at the test, it turned out to be the test that the other classes took. Not the marine biology test. The life science test.

Oops.

Now, this was not my fault. The teacher paper clipped the tests to the answer sheets, and I just passed out what she had left me. Although, I would have thought the boy would have realized that the test wasn't covering the material they had covered in class.

After the bell rang and the class emptied, the boy approached me. He had a suspicion that the test wasn't his test, but he didn't want to disturb the class by returning to ask.

I explained to him that when this sort of mix up occurs, it is completely reasonable to come back to the room and alert me to the problem. Not that I could have given him the correct test (the teacher hadn't left it out), but at least we could have put it aside. Sigh.

He wasn't pleased that he'd have to take the test again. On Monday. But at least that test should be the correct test.