[fotbr]

To pick on my favorite example,

Many years ago, my univerity's choice of calculus book also had the solutions to half the problems (evens or odds, doesn't really matter).

Department policy was also one of "we won't provide you the correct answers" even after an assignment had been turned in because the book was used for multiple years. The publisher had a new edition every year, but the university stuck with the same book because it was used for Calculus I, II, and III, which for most students was 3 or 4 semesters between starting I and finishing III, usually due to a scheduling conflict requiring a semester off between them, or because they had to repeat Calc II since the math department's selection of instructors was particularly bad for that course.

Those same (usually bad) instructors were all too happy to follow the department policy and not provide any feedback other than "correct" or "incorrect".

On the other hand, the university book store carried, and put on the shelf right next to the calculus book, the publisher's "teacher's solution guide", in two very reasonably priced volumes, which had the answers for the other half of the problem sets, as well as the step-by-step process for most of them, which was the valuable part, as you could see where you were erring.

Math department policy was that you weren't allowed to have those, either.

You can guess how well that policy was followed.

Those that put the effort in and learned the material did well. Those that just copied from the solutions book and turned it in did not.

[futharkshill]

I find it so hard to believe American Universities give out grades based on hand-ins at all. It seems more similar to High School

[kop316]

At the end of the day, if a university gives out grades, there has to be some sort of objective way of handing out a grade. What I have seen for the good courses is it is a mixture of exams, projects, and homework.

Some students are very good at taking exams, others, not so much. This can be due to a learning disability, stress over test taking, etc (or it could even be that person just is having a bad day!). Having homework and projects allows for students to have a different way of showing that they understand the coursework, and are able to apply the material.

It also gives the professor and TAs insight into the student. Why is a student doing so well on homeworks, and not the exam or project?

Some courses have it where if youre final grade on the exam is an A, you get an A (since it is a comphrensive knowledge base test of what you are expected to know of the material). But, let's say you don't do as well on the exam, you can have the homeworks average out the exam grade. Or you have a project, that can help equalize out the grades, because the application of the knowledge is important as well.

[johnaspden]

> teacher's solution guide

If the person teaching a maths course needs to look the answers up, you are just fucked.