[mmooss]

Maybe the professor was training you and didn't care about the value of your undergraduate study, which was almost certainly not worth the professor's time otherwise.

[froindt]

Late reply, but that experience was actually in grad school. I was involved with research as an undergrad as well, but it was definitely confusing from how I stated things.

I was funded through a DARPA grant. It was definitely not a training exercise.

[CharlieDigital]

This is also my take; it's part of the process of practical transfer of knowledge and process.

He did extra work, but it was effectively practice.