<Dl> <Dd> How can one compare test scores from year to year, when very different problems are used? (If similar problems are used year after year, teachers and students will learn what they are, students will practice them: problems become exercises, and the test no longer assesses problem solving). </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> How can one compare test scores from year to year, when very different problems are used? (If similar problems are used year after year, teachers and students will learn what they are, students will practice them: problems become exercises, and the test no longer assesses problem solving). </Dd> <P> The same issue was faced by Sylvestre Lacroix almost two centuries earlier: </P> <Dl> <Dd>... it is necessary to vary the questions that students might communicate with each other . Though they may fail the exam, they might pass later . Thus distribution of questions, the variety of topics, or the answers, risks losing the opportunity to compare, with precision, the candidates one - to - another . </Dd> </Dl>

When can we say that a certain situation is a problem