this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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Reward the kid for being a smartass and intentionally misreading directions, and it ABSOLUTELY will happen again. Unless you're gonna start spending an hour writing incredibly precise paragraphs for each exercise like a magician giving instructions to a genie, there will always be some technically correct version that wasn't what the question intended.
This is so silly. Kids aren't code compilers. They know what's being asked of them. This is like shrugging your shoulders and just letting it happen when a kid is doing the whole "I'm not touching you!" shtick.
It's not rewarding. It's assigning points based on the completion of the task. This is math, it does not have to be warm and fuzzy touchy feely nonsense with room for interpretation. If you can't write clear instructions for a math problem, that is on you. If you cannot communicate your expectations to your students, that is on you. This problem would be incredibly easy to redo so that this answer was not allowed.
Ask the question you want the answer to. If you can't think of a good way to ask your question to get the answer you want, ask of a different question covering the same concepts. If you can't do that, then maybe you shouldn't be writing math exams.
Unless you actually somehow think this was a genuine misunderstanding of the test directions, then they were clear and the student provided useless answers on purpose.
Getting points is a reward for giving right answers. If the student wants to play language games on his math exam, let em fuck around and find out. But they do have to find out. Literally all I've suggested is making the student demonstrate actual understanding. Thinking even that is somehow going too far is absolutely ludicrous.
Getting points is not a reward for a right answer. It's a consequence of a right answer. There is no judgement or personal opinion or generosity involved. Right answer implies points. Anything else is dishonest.
Answering the question as written is not playing language games. It is answering the question. If your question allows answers that don't demonstrate what you want, then that means that you suck at language, not that your student is playing games. If the student is playing games as well, well students are allowed to have fun, and the screw up is still yours.
The language is very clear and the answers absolutely meet the requirement. The teacher does not get to withhold points because they're embarrassed that they wrote a crappy question.