So, I'm a neuroscientist by trade.  I do research on how the brain works.    This story happened a few years ago when my daughter was in middle school.  They were studying (ta da!) neuroscience in their science class.  They were given a take-home test with the following instructions: the test was 'open book', but with the stipulation that each student could only use one single resource to help with their answers.  The 'resource' could be a book, a website, a documentary, or a person (!).  Well, my daugther was pretty pleased with this, given that she had good old Dad at home who had a Ph.D. in the subject.  So we sat down together that evening.  She read me the questions, I answered them, and she wrote down the answers.  Of course, I also explained the answers to her - I wanted her to learn something.  She happily stuffed the finished exam into her notebook, stuffed the notebook into her backpack, and moved on to other homework.

 The next day when I came home, she was up in her room.  I went up and knocked on the door jamb as I arrived.  

"How did it go, sweetie?"  I asked.

 She just rolled her eyes and tossed me the exam.

54%!  An F!

"Thanks a lot Dad" she said.

 I was flabbergasted!  Over half the questions were either marked wrong, or were given only partial credit!  Surely there must be something wrong here!  Maybe my dear daughter hadn't transcribed the answers correctly.  Maybe we'd missed some requirement in the rubric.  Maybe.....

So I examined that test carefully.  Every single answer, even those marked off, was absolutely correct!  So what was the problem?

Upon examing the teachers comments in the margins of the test, I quickly saw the issue.  The teacher was looking for the text book answers.  Given that the questions were in my field of expertise, I knew every nuance and exception to the process queried in each question.  It basically came down to semantics.   For example, some questions were phrased as:

"Can this process happen this way?"

Well sure it can happen in that way.  If you manipulate it this way, or have the conditions that way, the process will happen that way.  DOES it happen that way?  Well, no, generally not.  But it CAN!  And that is what was asked!!!!!  If the question had been "DOES it happen that way?", then we would have answered it differently!

I turned to my daughter.  "Sweetie, I see what happened here.  It's just a misunderstanding.  Your answers are right, the teacher just didn't understand the reason for the answers."

I offered to phone the teacher to clear it up.

"NO!!!!!" dear daughter shrieked. "I don't want you calling the teacher!  That would be embarassing!"

"You'd rather take an F on the test, than have me call the teacher?"

"Yup!".

"Can you at least talk to the teacher about this?" I asked.

"I'll take care of it Dad, you've done enough".

 Sigh.