'My 3rd grade teacher told me wield is not word': Former students share the times their teachers marked their correct answers as incorrect

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Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Nov 14, 2024 4:00 PM EST

Everyone remembers at least one time when they got the wrong answer on a test. I vividly recall a test I took on the states of matter in the 4th grade; one of the questions asked us to write examples of a solid, a liquid, and a gas. I was trying to be creative (I believe I wrote "paint" for the liquid), so for gas, I wrote "fire." A quick Google search will show that fire is not a gas but a plasma. I remember feeling so betrayed and blindsided for getting that answer wrong on the test because, in my mind, fire was certainly not a liquid or a solid, and we were barely even covering the plasma subject. 

If I felt betrayed getting marked off for a question I missed, imagine how I'd feel if my teacher tried to correct me on a correct answer! The former students below have experienced that unique frustration and have lived to tell the tale.

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  • 01
    Son's math test
    via RishiLyn
  • 02
    4x-1 Write an addition equation that matches this multiplication equation. 3x4=12 X nodmun sér st +373 +3=12 4 = 12
    via RishiLyn
  • 03
    Dry_Quiet_3541 Had a similar situation in school with a math teacher being too adamant about her way of dividing numbers, and deducted points for a slightly different but valid process. I remember my parents furiously defending me during the parents-teacher meeting, she sucked it up and gave me points for the said controversial division problem. But the teacher kept being a grouch to me throughout the year and ignored answering my questions. Bad year in school.
    via Dry_Quiet_3541
  • 04
    Disastrous-Idea-7268 Reminds me of the time when I wrote 'Planet X is 1/64 times the size of Planet Y', the teacher marked it wrong saying 'Planet Y is 64 times the size of Planet X'
    via Disastrous-Idea-7268
  • 05
    Quickest_Ben I was shouted at by my music teacher for saying some bass guitars have 5 strings. He insisted they all had 4 and made fun of me in front of the class. The next week, I brought my 5 string bass in to prove him wrong and he yelled at me again lol.
    via Quickest_Ben
  • 06
    valsplays Oh yeah I get that in university too, I got 0 on a completely correct physics test bc of she like that, and when I confronted the professor about it he said it was my fault and that I just "didn't even know how to solve a+b=c"
    via valsplays
  • 07
    necessarysmartassery • 14h ago • Edited 8h ago I had an English teacher mark an answer on a test incorrect. I would have gotten a 100 otherwise. The question was about what the occupation of the person in the book was. I stated one thing, she said it was wrong. I pulled the book out of my backpack and read her the back cover where it confirmed my answer. She still refused to change my grade. பட F you, peg leg.
    via necessarysmartassery
  • 08
    Leonardo DaPinchy- I remember vividly failing an essay in grade 12 English class. We were supposed to write about our thoughts on the film The Truman Show. I argued it was a comedy on the outside, but a weird sadistic experiment when you look at the circumstances at face value. She gave me 0% because 'It's a comedy. You didn't watch the movie.'
    via LeonardoDaPinchy-
  • 09
    philthebrewer I got dinged for saying "inflammable" when I meant to say that something could catch on fire. The teacher insisted that I had to use flammable. Showed her the dictionary definitions that both words meant the same thing and she didn't budge. Full disclosure- I was picking a fight. Hated that teacher, knew she would call it out and wanted to mess with her.
    via philthebrewer
  • 10
    SufficientRing713 My English teacher refused to give me an A on English because I had a slight Russian accent. Even though I aced all the tests
    via SufficientRing713
  • 11
    Kalifreyja In 8th grade I wrote a book report on Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I knew "sematary" was spelled wrong, but when I referred to the title I kept the original spelling. My English teacher marked every occurrence wrong, and refused to give me points back for spelling. Even when I showed her my physical copy of the book.
    via Kalifreyja
  • 12
    PhilthyLurker Like back in the 70's my teacher asked the class to name a famous female tennis player. I put my hand up and said "Billie Jean King". She rolled her eyes and said "Billy is a boys name". No I haven't forgotten the humiliating laughs of my classmates you rancid old b
    via PhilthyLurker
  • 13
    AWildRaticate I had to retake a class in university because I wrote a philosophy paper about Kierkegaard and my professor had never heard of Kierkegaard. Like HOW IS THAT MY FAULT?!?
    via AWildRaticate
  • 14
    pfihbanjos One of my most vivid memories of high school is proudly writing as the answer that the question couldn't be answered because a parameter was missing, and the teacher saying that the few of us who hadn't answered should have "gotten the spirit of the question and guessed what she meant". I didn't protest but it's stuck with me even two decades later
    via pfihbanjos
  • 15
    ArcZVeigar My 3rd grade teacher told me "wield" is not a word.
    via ArcZVeigar
  • 16
    New-Anacansintta My son's middle school English teacher told my son's class that English was the official language of the USA. My poor kid tried to correct this, given he had grown up talking about sociolinguistics and had already been in college-level linguistics courses, but she wouldn't budge. He's 16 and still thinks about it.
    via New-Anacansintta
  • 17
    AnAussiebum We had to list animals from dry arid environments. Kids said elephant, lion, tortoise etc. It got to me in the class rotation and I said 'roadrunner'.
    via AnAussiebum
  • 18
    I was made to get up and in front of the class apologise for using a fake animated character to 'cheat'. Still remember it to this day. Roadrunner is a real animal.
    via AnAussiebum
  • 19
    patriotictraitor Mine told me "ignoring" was not a word when I was trying to report people bu lying me :)
    via patriotictraitor
  • 20
    LongWinterComing My kid came home in 3rd grade upset because the teacher pronounced the word misshapen as "miss- happen" and my kid tried to correct her and she wasn't having any of it. Smh.
    via LongWinterComing
  • 21
    rorykoehler I remember having an argument with a professor (literally in the first week of my course... probably a bad idea) about a concept I refuted because it was clearly subjective but they were treating it as objective. Her proof was some bs paper she and her buddies wrote. I had to laugh a couple of years ago when I found out my position is now the academic consensus.
    via rorykoehler
  • 22
    Caesary88 I FAILED my ending maths exam at university because I named my axis differently than the professor. When confronted he said I had to be cheating because I got good answers and everything else was "strange". I spent an hour going through my calculations step by step and he only gave me a grade of 3 (C for Americans)...
    via Caesary88
  • 23
    FollowAstacio I had a hs teacher accuse me of cheating (plagiarism actually) bc I didn't "look" like I could write like that. I was literally flabbergasted. She made me rewrite the entire paper. I was so angry I made sure to write an even better paper and turn it in that period so she knew. "You're done already?" The crazy part is I could see she genuinely believed I wrote it, but she just couldn't allow herself to bc of my “looks”. I can't even imagine what looks she saw other than my brown ski
    via FollowAstacio

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