@Setanta,
They're so secretive about these tests that I don't know what the kids knew about the question. I did come across this:
Quote:A further complication may be that at least some teachers tell their students that they can make up their answers if they don't have real-life examples to give. What matters, the teachers say, is the form of the writing, not whether what they say is true.
Which leads me to believe that both the teachers and kids thought the answer would count towards their score.
Of course, the scorers wouldn't know whether the kid had made it up or not. Like djjd, given the opportunity I probably would have come up with something extreme.
Also, I thought that the teachers weren't supposed to give any explicit instructions on the tests so I question why some teachers were giving instructions and others weren't.