Not Entirely Wrong

For the class I was covering before the break, economics was sixth period. Which meant that it was the last final I gave. 

Mr. B emailed me their final. I uploaded it to their Google Classroom. Mr. B also sent me the answer key, so I was able to grade it. 

"Identify the income group that will receive the most benefit under a flat tax." 

I remembered actually reading this in their textbook with them. (The final was only over the last two sections they had covered; it wasn't a comprehensive final.) And the test was open book/open note, so they didn't actually have to remember the answer. 

Mathias had a rough time with the question. Now, I'm not supposed to "help" with tests, but sometimes they just need a hint. 

The correct answer was: individuals with high incomes. 

Mathias, however, was thinking that the answer needed to be more complicated than it was. He, in fact, said he tended to overthink things.

So, I told Mathias (and, by extension, everyone else in the class, as virtual learning doesn't really have a whisper-to-one-kiddo mode) that the answer was an income group. I gave three examples of income groups (high, medium, low). Mathias was still kind of hesitant, but I really couldn't give him more.

After class I got to do the grading. The way that Google sets up the tests for grading makes things really simple. I can grade all the students' responses to one question at a time. So, when I got to this question, I got to see what everyone answered as a group. 

Most of them got it correct. The wording was different. Some said "the wealthy" or such. Close enough. Some chose the wrong income brackets. Of course those were wrong. 

But the best answer? "The IRS." 

I mean, they weren't wrong. But sadly, I had to mark it incorrect. 

I consoled myself with adding a comment to that answer. "LOL." I appreciate comedy when I find it in the wild.