"In high school, our p.e. grade was based on improvement. We took a skills test at the beginning and another at the end and your grade was based on how much you improved. So, once I learned that, I always sucked at the first test and then did miraculously better at the second, so I had a massive “improvement” and thus, a better grade."
BarnabyMoose
Most of the time, the operator knew the number was a pay phone. After ~5 tries, we would get an operator who didn’t know or check that it was a pay phone.