| 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. |