Editing Mathematical problem (section)

==Degradation of problems to exercises==
Mathematics educators using [[problem solving]] for evaluation have an issue phrased by [[Alan H. Schoenfeld]]:
: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 [[exercise (mathematics)|exercise]]s, and the test no longer assesses problem solving).<ref>[[Alan H. Schoenfeld]] (editor) (2007) ''Assessing mathematical proficiency'',  preface pages x, xi, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, [[Cambridge University Press]] {{isbn|978-0-521-87492-2}}</ref>
The same issue was faced by [[Sylvestre Lacroix]] almost two centuries earlier:
:... 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.<ref>[[S. F. Lacroix]] (1816) ''Essais sur l’enseignement en general, et sur celui des mathematiques en particulier'', page 201</ref>
Such degradation of problems into exercises is characteristic of mathematics in history. For example, describing the preparations for the [[Cambridge Mathematical Tripos]] in the 19th century, Andrew Warwick wrote:
:... many families of the then standard problems had originally taxed the abilities of the greatest mathematicians of the 18th century.<ref>Andrew Warwick (2003) ''Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics'', page 145, [[University of Chicago Press]] {{isbn|0-226-87375-7}}</ref>