[lostcolony]

My intro physics class was kind of like that. There was a departmental standard that all the profs were instructed to use, and it apparently just involved showing us equations and how to derive them (generally after we had already had to derive them on online coursework).

The tests were actually applying those equations, being able to pull apart a problem into what bits of information you had, what bits you needed, and being able to combine and substitute out formulas to get the missing bit you were asked for.

In hindsight, I can vaguely see how the instruction might have helped on the test (I'd have gotten used to substituting out and deriving new equations from the old), and I can see how I might have done better on the tests (write out what equations I remembered. Write out what data I was given. Write out what data I was missing. Start substituting things out until I found a way to calculate the thing they asked for), but at the time, the only thing that helped me pass was actual instruction and practice outside of class on solving problems.