Do exams take away crucial knowledge needed....

[Publius]

I'll elaborate a bit, because I'm not a public school/educational system hater.
By evaluating compliance, I mean that your grade reflects how well you followed the instructions of the course syllabus and or attendance policy. The written paper needs to be X pages, in this style, this many sources, etc. If you follow the instructions and do an average job with content, you'll score points. Again, irrelevant to learning, the objective is to follow directions. I think people drop out of college for this reason, but that's for another day.

My is high school son is taking English 101 down the street - his first 5 paragraph essay assignment (draft) was due yesterday. I looked it over, peachy keen. I should scan the paper so you believe me, but there were about 20 mark-ups. There were 2 comments on content. (tell me more about this, need a transition here).

Guess what the other marks were about?

Placement of his name
Double spacing
Teacher's name was wrong (he wrote Ms. while she wanted Mrs.)
Class section must go next to the English class number
Use a paper clip not a binder clip
...
and on and on...

Compliance. Of course he should format it according to the directions. And following directions are a component of learning. HOWEVER, the key to earning a good grade in this class is 100% following directions, not writing well. Compliance = good grades.

My son isn't especially good at being an OCD "Type A" direction follower, lucky his mom is lol. But seriously? Ticks me off. Classes like this eat kids and spit them out. (student loans and all)

Precisely. Compliance = Good Grades. They reward obeying and following directions more then they do learning. The focus is way off. And meanwhile, millions of kids are being pumped out school not knowing how to learn or have knowledge per se, but how to comply. That's not what schools, college's, or universities were designed for.