> If the result was correct but if they didn't like your preferred procedure they would lower your scores. They never could offer a sound reason for their deman

> If the result was correct but if they didn't like your preferred procedure they would lower your scores. They never could offer a sound reason for their demands. Perhaps they did have a sound reason. They just didn't bother to sell us on it. The reason was always "because the goal is to see if you've learned this technique, not if you can solve this specific problem". Which is a perfectly fine reason that I sympathized with, though I agree some were poor at articulating it. Where I had issues was when I didn't know what technique they wanted me to use, and then lost points for not guessing it correctly. That part is what always seemed unfair - if the goal is to test a technique, it should always be clear what the intended method is, and they need to explicitly specify it in the problem when it's unclear. The exercise is supposed to be in math, not ESP.