We were coming to the end of our third unit in College Algebra, so I reminded my students that we had a test coming up. “It will open next Friday, April 1st, so make sure you work on the test review.”

Rich, a boy in my class, started to laugh. “Oh, that’s good. A test on April Fool’s Day.”

I shrugged. “That just happens to be when the unit ends. I don’t control the calendar.”

He laughed even more. “Oh, that is so funny.”

The other students stared at Rich but said nothing. His social skills weren’t the best, so it wasn’t new. More than once, we had been right in the middle of an important discussion when he had turned to the person next to him to talk about something totally off-topic.

One day, I was showing the students the easiest way to think about logarithms when he said to the boy beside him, “Did you catch the basketball game last night? I can’t believe an eleventh-seed team could knock off the first-seed one. I guess that blows my bracket.”

The other boy looked frustrated because he was trying hard to take notes and understand the material. I paused, as I usually do when students are loud in class. In the silence, students almost always realize they are disturbing the class. But Rich was an exception. He seemed oblivious to the fact that everyone was staring at him and continued talking about the game, and he didn’t have a low volume.

Finally, I called his name. I had to call it again before he heard me.

“Rich, we would like to continue with the lesson,” I said.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” he said. “I was just telling Kevin about the game last night.”

“Yes, I know,” I said. “We all do. But I think Kevin is trying hard to understand the math.”

Kevin nodded.

“Oh, I can help with that,” Rich said. He then loudly started to explain it to Kevin.

Rich was bright, and what he said was mostly right. However, that was his one challenge. He missed details, and usually, they were important. Often, the small details can make or break parts of math questions.

It took me a while to realize Rich’s problem was that he was too into his phone. I have a no-phone-or-computer-in-class rule unless we are using them for the day, but I realized he was sneaking it out behind his textbook. That was what was causing him to miss the information.

The week after I announced the test, I allotted time at the beginning of each class for questions from the test review. More than half of the review questions were asked over the few days leading up to the exam. I worked all that were asked on the board.

I noticed that Rich had his phone open behind his book during those times and was paying no attention to what I was doing. I had reminded him about the rule a few times, and even though he lost points, he continued. I finally gave up bringing it to his attention.

Eventually, the test day came. I stood in front of the class with a stack of tests. “Okay, everyone, put away your books and everything except for a pencil, blank paper, and calculator.”

Rich started laughing. “Ha, ha, ha,” he said. “April Fools.”

But his countenance changed as I passed out the test, and everyone started working on it. “You mean the test is real?” he asked.

“I told you it was,” I replied. “And we worked problems from the review all week.”

“But I didn’t prepare,” he said. “I was sure it was just a joke.”

Kevin turned to him. “It is, but only on you.”