When I took algebra in 8th grade, I successfully negotiated myself out of the requirement to show work, which applied to every other student in the class. In order to reach this deal, my teacher challenged me with one of the hardest word problems pertaining to our lesson, and gave me 1 minute to solve it in my head. 45 seconds later, I could obtain full credit for correct answers without showing my work. She warned me that she wouldn't be able to award me partial credit for wrong answers unless I showed my work. I did eventually get a wrong answer, and lost all credit on that problem. I'm proud to say that I didn't complain. No other students requested that deal or challenge. Perhaps some of the children of forum members here could negotiate such a deal though.
In precalculus I failed to negotiate a deal by which homework wouldn't affect my grade. Although I had a test average of over 100 due to extra credit problems, the teacher seemed to imply that he would have made the deal only on the condition that I had answered every single test question correctly for the entire first quarter. Thus I had to be happy to obtain an "A" rather than an "A+" and a teacher comment that read "Student is not working to potential." Looking back, I wonder if that comment was directed at me, or at school administrators. Perhaps he was trying to use me to draw attention to the fact that some students could ace his class without using their full potential.
