r/todayilearned • u/Ill_Definition8074 • 14h ago

TIL In 2019 a Japanese University student studying ninja history turned in an essay written in invisible ink. The words only became visible when the paper was heated over a gas stove. Her professor without even revealing the whole essay gave her an A.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49996166
65.8k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

928 comments sorted by

View all comments

6.9k

u/Ichier 14h ago

Yeah, my professors didn't do hard shit to grade work that clearly had a lot of work put in either. One of my classmates in college had to write a paragraph of what it would be like to be a french peasant so they wrote it in french and got a 100%, the professor isn't checking that stuff.

200

u/diffyqgirl 13h ago edited 13h ago

When I was in 9th grade, we read the Odyssey as many 9th graders do, and every week we had to turn in a short essay (like a couple paragraphs) analysing one of the characters. One week in a fit of boredom and creativity I instead submitted several pages of homeric verse about why I thought Telemachus sucked. It rhymed, it had meter, it had homeric similes, I was quite proud of it.

The teacher gave me a B because I forgot one of the rubric items for the assignment that we were supposed to talk about for the character. I was so upset. Completely killed my motivation to try in that class.

151

u/DeviantDragon 13h ago

I think it's kind of a reasonable lesson though. Make sure you're delivering on the core requirements of the assignment and then you can add your own spin on things. It's how the real world can be.

2

u/tarekd19 8h ago

yeah, if there is a transparent and accessible rubric, there's not really an excuse for not addressing everything you need to.