personally i think that most all coursework should be pass/fail and exams should be designed to test if the material has been internalized or not and that's it.

personally i think that most all coursework should be pass/fail and exams should be designed to test if the material has been internalized or not and that's it. no little bits of trickery to try and differentiate between students, as it's just too noisy and small of a space to do that sort of differentiation. instead, rely on project work to differentiate students. ask them to apply the knowledge in a realistic setting in a practical way and demonstrate their mastery of the subject. this whole idea of making the exam harder than the material in order to open up a spread in performance is kinda silly if you ask me. it often just reflects pre-course preparation and literally noise (who happened to remember some obscure identity or whatever on that particular day).