gwnn, on 2012-March-11, 03:24, said:
I work as a TA this term. This guy wrote a solution full of unnecessary solution and finished in 4-5 pages of integrals and identities, seemingly arriving at the right answer. I was just about to write 'next time, look at the hint we gave you and you can do it in 5 lines!' when I realised that he actually wrote that version on the next page headed by 'alternative solution:'. So why hand in the long, ugly one??? Just to take up 30 minutes of my time? If he sends in two solutions, one correct and one incorrect, I will grade the incorrect one.
I can suggest an explanation. Maybe he didn't at first see the hint, or didn't understand the hint. He worked it out on his own and then saw or understood the hint, but wanted to submit the solution that he did completely on his own. He might have mentioned this of course, but I'm sort of his side on this.
As a general rule I never liked problems with hints. Call it a pet peeve so that it qualifies for this thread. I felt that it intruded on my autonomy. The general consensus was that I was nuts.