[snprbob86]

I've had several teachers pull that crummy joke when I was in grammar school in the 90s too. This is more or less the test: http://echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24333&star...

Personally, I don't think there is a lesson to be learned here. It amounts to nothing more than a lame practical joke.

[boredguy8]

The lesson is: some people really like hierarchy and bureaucracy. Probably appropriate for pre-flight checks. Probably not appropriate for children in school.

[neoclassical]

It's a cheap shot, but it does cut down on obliviously repeating the process you've been taught. We want people to read directions for any new process, no?

[cakesy]

It teacher you to follow instructions.

The one we had was a set of increasingly complex instructions, and the last instruction saying to just sit there quietly. So you would be working hard at solving the problems, and various people would just be sitting there with a smile on there face. You knew these people, since they were your classmates, so they weren't savants, so how did they get through these problems so quickly. Eventually each one of you realise, and look for the trick, getting to the last question. There is always someone who just keeps going.

[snprbob86]

1) No, it doesn't. The wording is typically "read everything before doing anything". That completely ambiguous. Most exams start with meaningless instructions about which pages you can and can't write on. How to fill in bubbles completely. What type of writing implement to use. It is a complete waste of your time to read initial instructions on exams, just as it is a complete waste of your time to read the initial remarks in most other aspects of life.

2) Even if it did teach you to follow instructions, is that a good lesson? I think I've only gotten to where I am in life by explicitly NOT following instructions.

[derefr]

#2 is not the lesson actually learned. The high-level instructions contradict the low-level instructions, and the lesson is on how to handle that (usually by following the high-level instructions.) This is the lesson that the Swedish military qualification exam posted here earlier tested (with "orders of a superior" as the low-level instruction and "Human rights" as the high-level instruction.)