Actually, when I was teaching, I used to see a student strategy I called “obey the compiler”, which was to fix whatever the compiler complained about, without t

Actually, when I was teaching, I used to see a student strategy I called “obey the compiler”, which was to fix whatever the compiler complained about, without thinking. If the compiler said “semicolon expected at col 42”, the student would put a semicolon at column 42. If the compiler complained “undeclared identifier prnit_results”, the student would declare a name prnit_results. The strategy, when followed to extremes, could convert an almost-valid program into a string of nonsense (post-conversion was when the student came to me for help), more or less the opposite of PL/C's strategy, which I mentioned in an earlier comment. To be fair, this strategy was mostly found in first-year, and a few weaker second-year students.