I once dated a woman who was taking online college courses, and one night, she was particularly upset about some test results she'd gotten, swearing that the one question she'd gotten wrong was actually correct. She was ready to fire off an email to the professor to plead her case, but wanted me to read it first to make sure it didn't sound too aggressive. In it, she explained that the multiple choice question had three correct answers and an "All of the above" option, but since "All of the above" was the first/top answer, none of the other answers were literally "above" it, so she didn't pick it...
I laughed for a solid minute before I could catch my breath to tell her emphatically NOT to send that to her professor. What's worse is I still had to explain to her how she'd essentially outsmarted herself, and she wasn't happy. That was 10 years ago, and I still think of that day from time to time and laugh.
Funny thing is, it wouldn't surprise me to learn the teacher did that on purpose to see if anyone noticed. I've seen videos where people collected trick questions like that from teachers, who have a weird sense of humor.
Like, in a similar vein, my highschool physics teacher, on one test, included a synopsis of the game of basketball in the margins of the test. It wasn't a question, just...smooshed into the margin, on 3 pages. And it went thusly:
*Paraphrased because fuck that was 25 years ago.*
The goal of the game of basketball, is to get the ball to stick to the ground. Each team has an opportunity to slam the ball to the ground, over and over, in an attempt to make it stick. If they hold it for too long, this is bad. They are allowed to pass the ball to teammates, who might have better luck at sticking the ball to the ground. If they wish, they can attempt to throw the ball through their opponent's hoop, which is lined with glue, in an attempt to make it stick. The ball must stick to the ground after going through the hoop. If it does not, the other team is now given a chance to stick the ball to the ground.
He also included one of my friends, and fellow physics student into his examples:
Super Skater Dude Ben (cause you know, his name is Ben, and he was a skater), is traveling down a 45deg, frictionless incline, the incline levels out for X feet before ending in a busy interstate of death. How fast would Super Skater Dude Ben have to be traveling to ramp over the interstate and avoid being squished?
My friend Ben's response upon reading this "What the hell teach?!" with a laugh.
So yeah, a teacher, making the answer "All of the Above" but putting all the answers below...sounds totally like it's on purpose to me. I would've told her to still email the teacher, but to make it in the form of a goofy, comical answer. No heat, just humor, to see if that really was the point. Hell for all we know, the teacher was going to give out extra credit to anyone who caught it.
![Big grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)