[Saline9515]

On the contrary, the French "dissertation" exercise requires to articulate reasoning and facts, and come up with a plan for the explanation. It is the same kind of thinking that you are required to produce when writing a scientifically paper.

It is however not taught very well by some teachers, who skirt on explaining how to properly do it, which might be your case.

[rkomorn]

I'm pretty sure my teachers in the 90s were teaching properly.

I also don't see what's "on the contrary" there.

[Saline9515]

On the contrary, your OP claims that dissertations require a rehash of the references cited in class. A real dissertation exercises logic and requires mobilizing facts and verbal precision to ground arguments. It is also highly teacher-dependent: if the correction is lax or not properly explained, you won’t understand what the exercise really is or how you are supposed to think in order to succeed.