The pre test asked her to draw a 90 degree angle. My DD drew a Right angle using Line Segments. Made the three points, labeled them A, B, and C and made the little right angle box inside the angle. She got the problem wrong because she didn't use arrows on her lines to represent lines.
They got her because the directions said "line" segments.
This has happened to my son as well. He was marked wrong on a fill-in-the-blanks proof on a geometry test because he wrote "Side Angle Side" instead of "Side Angle Side
Theorem." There were four of these instances, and he ended up with a C on an exam that he actually aced. They got him because the directions said "Identify the theorem or postulate that makes each statement true." This was interpreted as meaning that you had to write "theorem" or "postulate" as part of the answer.
IMO, picayune stuff like this is actually a way of making math "accessible" to students who really aren't capable of getting through a classically taught course. They memorize factoids and regurgitate them on an exam, and the schools pretend that the kids are learning college-prep math. When you look at the material from this perspective, deducting points for arrowheads and the word "theorem" makes sense.
Obviously, a proper geometry course wouldn't present fill-in-the-blank "proofs." It would make a statement and ask the kids to do an entire proof from scratch, and the main grading focus would be on grasp of concepts and the ability to apply them, rather than vocabulary. True, there's a place for memorizing definitions, but that should be a small, discrete part of a math test.
