[Uncle Miltie]

I can confirm that getting the right answer will not get you credit.

Showing your work while getting the wrong answer gets you credit.

[Paladin2]

In school, I used to get the right answer. One teacher really had a problem with my not showing my work.

Now since the advent of VisiCalc/Lotus 1-2-3/Excel (MatLab/R, etc.) it's more difficult to hide one's tracks....

[Cold Heart]

“Showing your work while getting the wrong answer gets you credit”

I also can confirm that. Ten years ago my daughter asked for help with her algebra. The problem was easy and I showed her how to do it in seconds. “Dad, I can’t do it that way we have to do it this way and show our work”

The method was convoluted and Rube Goldberg. The method was designed so the student could not get help from the parent.

And yes there were rain forest word problems in the text.

[ctdonath2]

What if one gets the right answer, shows the work (in great detail!), but uses a different method? what if it’s the same method but done in a different way?

In a computing logic course (college), I got a 64 on a math-heavy final exam. I went to the instructor, showed that I had done all the work correctly and as taught, but had simply written things in a different (yet perfectly valid!) way. Walked out with a 100.
The TA had simply marked wrong everything that hadn’t been done exactly the same way s/he had it done on the answer sheet. My work wasn’t wrong. Some of us mentally organize material in ways different than precisely as taught.