"Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died of this."

I have just been laughing out loud at this and other funny exam answers by students reprinted at richardpettinger.com, a website maintained by a friend who is also an economics teacher. Being of a liberal disposition I don't hold the latter against the former...

Believe it or not I once also marked exams. Well sort of. My mother is a high school home economics teacher, and once took on national year end exam marking to supplement her income. At the age of twelve I earned myself twenty dollars (a fortune!) going, one at at time, through dreadfully dull questions about baking agents and kitchen safety procedures, and then checking all of the marked totals. It was at this point that I knew that I wouldn't be following professionally in the maternal footsteps.

Read more: The World by Ibid