Have you ever wanted to just randomly mark
boxes with 
‘s when filling out forms?
I have but have never done so.
When presented with those tedious forms with endless questions,
I always try answer to the best of my knowledge
and put the in the correct box.
Although, lately my knowledge is getting hazy.
When I was in junior high and high school every couple
of years, we took IQ tests that took hours.
All those questions and little boxes to put an in.
I did my best, reading and considering each and every question
before putting an where I thought it should be.
One year a fellow test taker randomly placed his ‘s.
Just marked boxes with no thought at all.
His parents got a call to see the administrator of the test.
They were kind of freaked out.
What was wrong with their son?
Well, turns out his test scores showed he was a genius!
Now this kid was…shall we say special…he marched to his own drummer,
often getting into trouble at school and minor skirmishes with the local law.
It was decided all this trouble was because he was so far ahead
of his peers and teachers that he was bored beyond imagining so he acted out.
He didn’t say a word to anyone about how he answered the questions
he just went along with it thinking that adults can be played for fools.
And play them he did.
He could leave a class if he wanted, and did,
he was often asked for his opinion in classes by the teachers,
and he gave it,
(I think some teachers were on to him)
his parents were told to let him come and go as he wanted.
(They tried to reign him in but hey he knew how to play the game)
He was the golden child having a great time.
It wasn’t until the next time the test was given that he was found out.
Same strategy with very different results.
The school was shocked!
What happened?
Was he fooling around with this test?
No, he tried his best this time and the test
showed he was a kid with normal intelligence.
He fessed up to what he had done on the first test
laughing the whole time.
Maybe the next time I go to the doctor and have to
put ‘s in all those little boxes, you know the ones;
do you or anyone in your family have or ever have had…
I think I’ll just mark them randomly.
That’s my post for the letter
Patricia's Place 
Oh dear, that might not be the form to randomly mark x’s, they could come up with a whole list of testing that needs to be done as preventative measure! I do remember those IQ tests, and those with high scores believed themselves to be so amazing, and those with low scores felt hopeless. Worst testing idea ever! I honestly think that many tests administered in school do more harm than good. Marking boxes with x’s wasn’t so bad, but filling in all those little circles with a #2 pencil was torturous. Now I often get to sign my name with an x when vendors come into our office with their receipts on tablets or phones… our copier company even lets us sign with a smiley face, because we have to type our last name in the space below. Maybe we should all change our signatures to emoticons! :-))
I would just refuse the tests. I have been known to do that! IQ tests were at best boring at worst categorizing. If we changed signatures to emoticons I would want to use my Gravatar.
I really enjoyed your post. So glad I found your blog through the A to Z Challenge. We’re almost there! http://www.dianeweidenbenner.com
Thanks. Just 2 more to go. Now I am off to see you.
On a scale of one to ten, and if x equals genius, and if , and if, and if…….You possess the ability to wow us.
Sweet! Thank you.
I got a chuckle out of this post. I took several tests, while I was employed, to keep my current position. My organization, at that time, was being bought out and 35% of the employees were let go. These were personality tests and to me, the correct answer was obvious. So, I just checked the obvious, whether I agreed or not. I aced all 3 tests and kept my position until I retired.
So you have test taking strategies. Good for you. It has been years since I have had to take a test for work or placement of any kind. Once i took a pre-employment test for a department store. One of the questions was, “Have you ever stolen anything?” I thought that was either just a dumb question or a trick one.
That is a dumb question unless you have a rap sheet.
This post made me laugh. Something similar happened to my husband during his senior year of high school. The military recruiters came and forced the boys to sign up for Selective Service. This was the first year of it. Then, they forced them to take the military ASVAB test. David was put out about being forced into this…the recruiters has threatened bodily harm if the boys left the room. So, he just willy-nilly marked the answers, putting the x where it looked good to him. When the results came back, the US Navy was calling on him, multiple times. They said that he would be a great nuclear engineer, to please join up, etc. He was diabetic and ordinarily couldn’t have joined even if he had wanted to. They offered him a waiver for the diabetes. We still get a laugh out of that. One thing I wonder is what on earth would have happened if he had been forced to join the Navy because of his test results.
Have a blessed day!
That’s funny but sorta scary. It’s like getting a waiver for rheumatoid arthritis to be tightrope walker because you aren’t afraid of heights. Ok, not quite like that but you get what I mean.
Yes, I get what you mean. It’s like they think a waiver is going to make the danger go away. 🙂
When I saw this title, I broke out in a sweat. I thought it was a Math test.
A math test is a good reason for breaking out in a sweat. Very glad those days are over.