I sat my first exam for a university course I was teaching last year. I thought I needed to introduce some new ideas, so the students wouldn't be bored doing it. From the evaluations, not all students agreed...
I always hated when my instructors put "important" results that we have never seen before on an exam. It was like adding insult to injury if I didn't know how to solve it.
It was different on homework assignments, because usually that you had time to work through the problem in detail and have the "aha" moment, without stress and time pressure.
You would have hated my 1977 quantum mechanics final; not a single question that had been directly covered in the course. Really sorted out those who had been paying attention from those who thought that memorization was enough.
As far as buzzwords, I think the weight of "MIT" is much heavier than any buzzwords that could be attached. (Though, I'm biased.)
The guy I studied with sat behind me, and at one point one of us started stress laughing. Then it was two of us in the middle of a lecture laughing like our gun just jammed while the horror movie cereal killer was almost within striking distance.
There were a lot of pissed off people in class for the next couple of weeks.