I helped him study for a test and it was pretty enlightening, and hilarious, and also sad. We made flash cards and I would say, "what do you know about dolomite," for instance, and he absolutely could. not. answer. the question phrased that way. His responses were things like (in the dolomite instance)--"Um, not much--it's a rock." When I asked the question more specifically, he was able to recall a lot more detail and express it more clearly. But if I don't say the right word, he just STICKS in a strange, literal place.
I also noticed that he cannot "memorize" in terms of rote memory, if he doesn't understand the concept. He was having trouble with understanding the "coriolos effect," and said there was no use trying to just memorize a blurb about it--yet could describe other more complicated concepts quite easily, because he understands them.
You're describing what could be a retrieval deficit. It's all about the hook, both for getting it into long-term storage, and for getting it back out. When he is able to take notecards into tests, he should make sure that he studies to mastery with the SAME notecards he will have, so that the retrieval cues can be attached to the materials he has available in the testing situation.
It may also help him to learn some typical "translations" for the kinds of questions that teachers ask in class and on assignments and assessments, so that he can re-interpret those excessively vague and open-ended questions into something that works better for him.
