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Comment by luisjgomez | Hacker News Reader

"Please do not put solutions to exercises online as it is important for students to work out solutions for themselves rather than copy them from the internet"

Why exactly?

I've found that being able to walk through a solution can be quite illuminating. There's also an exploration/efficiency tradeoff. At some point you can't spend any more time thinking through a problem (because life) and being able to work through a solution still brings many (if not maximal) benefits.

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Robert Ash, imho one of the best writers for mathematical self-study, lists "Include Solutions to Exercises" as #2 piece of advice in 'Remarks on Expository Writing in Mathematics'[0] His quote is better than any summary I could come up with:

"There is an enormous increase in content when solutions are included. I trust my readers to decide which barriers they will attempt to leap over and which obstacles they will walk around. This often invites the objection that I am spoon-feeding my readers. My reply is that I would love to be spoon-fed class field theory, if only it were possible. Abstract mathematics is difficult enough without introducing gratuitous roadblocks."

[0]http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~r-ash/Remarks.pdf

Perhaps because if the answers are online then students have to spend willpower to resist using them. I heard of a professor who let his students choose individually whether their class attendance would be mandatory or not, for the same reason.

That said, most likely it's just to enable homework grading.

I agree. I have found that I've done best in courses where the instructor post solutions to all problems, homework, practice, and exams.

"Why exactly?"

Solutions are one way to solve a problem. Providing an answer dissuades students finding novel answers for themselves.

Same- in the event I do get stuck in a textbook, it's usually on one of the "challenge" problems that tend to require a clever insight that you can be led to if you have access to a professor with office hours. I don't, so following a solution up until the clever insight (and no further) is the best I can really do.

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