> Doing this requires that you solve the problem, not that you get some tool to do it. Ideally, yes. But this reveals the problem at the heart of busywork assi

> Doing this requires that you solve the problem, not that you get some tool to do it. Ideally, yes. But this reveals the problem at the heart of busywork assignments and standardized testing; there is more than one way to skin a cat. You're still graded by an objective set of qualities that can be gamed and manipulated to make yourself stand out against more competent students. You probably shouldn't just copy a calculator or the circle of fifths for your homework assignment; but if it fulfills the demands of the question, you might as well. You have to award points for what you want to see. If you grade for completion, you will get minimum-effort work back from your students. If you award points for writing out computation by-hand, you'll get more procedure-oriented students. Testing fails students because it inherently forces them to look at their grade from a results-oriented perspective.