A teacher was so astounded by a pupil’s approach to a maths problem, they felt compelled to share it on Reddit.
While not the answer the teacher was expecting, the child did display a skill for thinking outside the box when tackling questions.
Redditor HouseHoldSheep shared the image below with the caption: “I was marking my students tests and one did this.”
You can see the faint markings left behind from the child’s original workings out before they landed on the stroke of genius that led them to their answer.
Many Redditors commented on the confusing structure of the question.,
“Seems like a pretty dumb test question, I don’t blame him,” wrote ZXander_makes_noise.
Others took issue with the way the pupil had phrased “the question”: “’Please write a2/b2’ isn’t a question, it’s an imperative,” wrote Advorange.
But some felt this was splitting hairs.
“On tests ‘questions’ are often imperatives,” rstated Average650.