<p>There’s a very possible explanation for how the ignored pupil <em>get</em> their exam papers. The teachers could just print out five or so spare exam papers ‘in case they get lost’. Giving it out to the ignored pupil could be avoided by just leaving the spares on the teacher’s desk and making the ignored pupil get it themself. Along the same lines, the teacher can ask for the collected papers to be put on their desk and the ignored pupil just puts their paper on the same stack before the teacher takes them away.</p>

<p>The main difficulty remains how the teacher is able to <em>mark</em> the entire exam without unignoring the ignored pupil. But maybe this can be explained by assuming that the teacher just marks them one by one by one and does not count the number of papers they marked. So they accidentally mark one exam too much unknowingly. Or marking is done by other teachers not directly associated with the class. The latter could fail if that is not a common concept though, because it would include the other teacher realising there is one extraneous sheet in there. Unless they don’t know the <em>actual</em> number of pupils in 3-3.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-24T09:38:19.287Z
2016-08-24T09:38:19.287Z
Jan
<p>That's why success rate of this countermeasure was only 50%. "Sometimes it worked and sometimes it was completely failed. Sometimes there were obvious reasons and sometimes reasons were completely unknown." These similar lines were spoken by chibiki.
Although they were ignoring the non-existent, yet somehow they were being acknowledged at some moments.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-24T06:53:58.510Z
2016-08-24T06:53:58.510Z
defalt
<p>This contains spoilers for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_%28novel%29" rel="nofollow">Another</a>, which is somewhat new (the anime is from 2012).</p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_%28novel%29" rel="nofollow">Another</a> is an anime series about a cursed classroom. The students (and teachers) have designed a countermeasure to avoid the curse from triggering each year, which consists on completely ignoring a student (treating them as non-existent). By doing this, the number of students in the classroom is technically decreased by one, which makes up for the extra dead student that got mixed in the class.</p>

<p>Misaki is the chosen student to be ignored by the classroom this year. After a mess up, Sakakibara is also ignored.</p>

<p>However, if I'm not mistaken, during exam periods, <strong>both students (Misaki and Sakakibara) have exam papers</strong>. Why? Doesn't giving them exam papers pretty much <strong>acknowledge</strong> that they exist? Doesn't that break the entire countermeasure? (from the point of view of the classroom)</p>

<p><strong>Edit</strong></p>

<p>For clarification: the countermeasure involves people directly related to the class. This means, students that belong to this classroom <em>and</em> teachers that teach this class. External students and teachers from other classrooms are not involved with the curse, so they may interact with the non-existent students just fine.</p>

<p>The librarian, and students from the art club etc, have no problem interacting with the non-existent students.</p>

<p>The external students/teachers are not very well aware of the curse though. The cursed classroom tries not to talk about it with others.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-03T16:14:56.477Z
... Presumably the _teacher_ isn't ignoring them.  I mean, bullying is one thing, but there'd be a lot more questions asked if somebody didn't have an entry in the school roster, never took home a report card, etc.  And are they only ignored in the classroom itself, or completely (outside of school)?
Clockwork-Muse
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-03T20:30:34.120Z
@Clockwork-Muse: The countermeasure involves anyone directly involved with the classroom (both students and teachers have to ignore the kids). People from other classrooms (students and teachers) may interact with them just fine. Also, the non-existant students do have entries in the roster, but they have a red line crossing their entries, somewhat indicating that they no longer belong to the course.
Saturn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-03T23:46:26.517Z
I was thinking about this as well. Thinking of ignoring someone is somehow having to acknowledge their existence to be ignored. Like in the saying "expect the unexpected", doesn't that make the unexpected the expected? Well, this maybe a plot hole or something. :D
xjshiya
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-04T07:29:28.713Z
@xjshiya: Well, for that case, I suppose that the students can think whatever they wish, as long as their actual actions ignore the non-existent students. The odd thing is this, about the teacher giving them exam papers. Shouldn't he just *not* give them anything? :/
Saturn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-04T07:31:54.417Z
Yeah that's probably it. :)
xjshiya
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-08T18:20:58.830Z
I doubt there is an answer to this question. You could call it a plot hole I guess, but I find it unlikely that there is any official reason/explanation for such an oversight.
atlantiza
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-10T13:05:05.720Z
@Omega well we do know for a fact, that the students really notice misaki (and later sakakibara) but they choose to ignore them. (see their reactions when sakakibara asks about misaki) these two are even going on the class-trip. so it might very well be the case, that only the actions of the students decide the triggering of the curse
Vogel612
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-10T23:02:12.340Z
@Vogel612: The class trip was after everyone gave up ignoring them, I think (because they realized that the deaths were continuing anyway, so they decided to do a class trip to the shrine and pray there). Also, if the curse is only related to the students' actions, why would the professor cross out Sakakibara's entry in the roster?
Saturn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-13T00:45:51.083Z
I believe i can answer but as i have not found it and can not remember well, can you tell me in which episode the exam paper scene you mentioned occurred?
アキオ
<another>
Doesn't letting the non-existent students do exams acknowledge their existence?
# Doesn't letting the non-existent students do exams acknowledge their existence?
Posted by: username_0 on 2013-07-03
This contains spoilers for [Another](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_%28novel%29), which is somewhat new (the anime is from 2012).

[Another](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_%28novel%29) is an anime series about a cursed classroom. The students (and teachers) have designed a countermeasure to avoid the curse from triggering each year, which consists on completely ignoring a student (treating them as non-existent). By doing this, the number of students in the classroom is technically decreased by one, which makes up for the extra dead student that got mixed in the class.

Misaki is the chosen student to be ignored by the classroom this year. After a mess up, Sakakibara is also ignored.

However, if I'm not mistaken, during exam periods, **both students (Misaki and Sakakibara) have exam papers**. Why? Doesn't giving them exam papers pretty much **acknowledge** that they exist? Doesn't that break the entire countermeasure? (from the point of view of the classroom)

**Edit**

For clarification: the countermeasure involves people directly related to the class. This means, students that belong to this classroom *and* teachers that teach this class. External students and teachers from other classrooms are not involved with the curse, so they may interact with the non-existent students just fine.

The librarian, and students from the art club etc, have no problem interacting with the non-existent students.

The external students/teachers are not very well aware of the curse though. The cursed classroom tries not to talk about it with others.
**Tags:** another
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: ... Presumably the _teacher_ isn't ignoring them.  I mean, bullying is one thing, but there'd be a lot more questions asked if somebody didn't have an entry in the school roster, never took home a report card, etc.  And are they only ignored in the classroom itself, or completely (outside of school)?  
> **username_0**: @Clockwork-Muse: The countermeasure involves anyone directly involved with the classroom (both students and teachers have to ignore the kids). People from other classrooms (students and teachers) may interact with them just fine. Also, the non-existant students do have entries in the roster, but they have a red line crossing their entries, somewhat indicating that they no longer belong to the course.  
> **username_2**: I was thinking about this as well. Thinking of ignoring someone is somehow having to acknowledge their existence to be ignored. Like in the saying "expect the unexpected", doesn't that make the unexpected the expected? Well, this maybe a plot hole or something. :D  
> **username_0**: @xjshiya: Well, for that case, I suppose that the students can think whatever they wish, as long as their actual actions ignore the non-existent students. The odd thing is this, about the teacher giving them exam papers. Shouldn't he just *not* give them anything? :/  
> **username_2**: Yeah that's probably it. :)  
> **username_3**: I doubt there is an answer to this question. You could call it a plot hole I guess, but I find it unlikely that there is any official reason/explanation for such an oversight.  
> **username_4**: @Omega well we do know for a fact, that the students really notice misaki (and later sakakibara) but they choose to ignore them. (see their reactions when sakakibara asks about misaki) these two are even going on the class-trip. so it might very well be the case, that only the actions of the students decide the triggering of the curse  
> **username_0**: @Vogel612: The class trip was after everyone gave up ignoring them, I think (because they realized that the deaths were continuing anyway, so they decided to do a class trip to the shrine and pray there). Also, if the curse is only related to the students' actions, why would the professor cross out Sakakibara's entry in the roster?  
> **username_5**: I believe i can answer but as i have not found it and can not remember well, can you tell me in which episode the exam paper scene you mentioned occurred?  
---
## 2 answers
### Answer by username_6 on 2016-08-24. Score: 0
There’s a very possible explanation for how the ignored pupil *get* their exam papers. The teachers could just print out five or so spare exam papers ‘in case they get lost’. Giving it out to the ignored pupil could be avoided by just leaving the spares on the teacher’s desk and making the ignored pupil get it themself. Along the same lines, the teacher can ask for the collected papers to be put on their desk and the ignored pupil just puts their paper on the same stack before the teacher takes them away.

The main difficulty remains how the teacher is able to *mark* the entire exam without unignoring the ignored pupil. But maybe this can be explained by assuming that the teacher just marks them one by one by one and does not count the number of papers they marked. So they accidentally mark one exam too much unknowingly. Or marking is done by other teachers not directly associated with the class. The latter could fail if that is not a common concept though, because it would include the other teacher realising there is one extraneous sheet in there. Unless they don’t know the *actual* number of pupils in 3-3.
---
### Answer by username_7 on 2016-08-24. Score: 0
That's why success rate of this countermeasure was only 50%. "Sometimes it worked and sometimes it was completely failed. Sometimes there were obvious reasons and sometimes reasons were completely unknown." These similar lines were spoken by chibiki.
Although they were ignoring the non-existent, yet somehow they were being acknowledged at some moments.
---
