College student forces professor to give them full credit for a blank essay after using professor's formatting rules against him: ‘I hadn't broken a single rule’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Aug 18, 2026 12:00 PM EDT

We all wish for a technicality to save us from actually studying for an exam or completing an assignment, but this student took this wish to the next level.

You remember that wonderful moment in high school when you were facing an impossible-looking question on an exam, and all of a sudden you hear your teacher ask for everyone's attention so they could say: "There is a mistake in question number X; please ignore it and move on; you will all get full credit for it." Wow, what a thrill.

Since then, every exam and every assignment you complete, whether your in high school or in college, you hope for that beautiful moment to repeat itself. It doesn't even matter that you studied hard and put in the work, being handed full credit without having to do nothing is always a blessing that no one would ever take for granted.

When you have an extremely stict, and some might even say annoying, professor, you might the burning sensasion to "cheat the system" even more. After all, it is one thing when a nice professor admits they were wrong, and a whole other thing when a mean professor does it. Anyone who has even been to school knows how rare it is for a stict teacher or professor to admit to their mistake, and even more rare for that mistake to translate to "free" credit for the students, so baring witness to that is a treasure indeed.

The student who shared their tale below managed to do exactly that. Their stict professor went on and on about the importance of following his formatting guidline, which resulting in one student following the instructions to the tea just to prove a point. There were enough loopholes in the professor's syllabus that the student could submit an empty paper with only the formatting guildines in tact, and since the professor claimed that those who follow them would get a full score, he had to make that happen even for a paper that contained nothing but page numbers and the right title font.

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  • 01

    My professor said follow the formatting rules exactly or lose points, so I did

    This was sophomore year, some gen ed English class I only took because I needed the credit. My professor, I will just call him Dr. H, was known across the whole
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 02
    Disappointed college professor.
    via Vitaly Gariev

    Disappointed college professor.

    Image shown for illustrative purposes; person depicted is a model.

  • 03
    department for being insane about formatting. Not the normal MLA or APA stuff, he had his own extra rules stapled onto the syllabus on
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 04
    top of that. Font, margins, spacing, where the page numbers had to go, all graded completely separate from the actual writing.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 05
    About three weeks into the semester someone asked what happens if you do not follow the formatting rules exactly. He said, word for word, because I wrote it
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 06
    down out of spite, that if you follow his instructions exactly as written you get full formatting credit, no exceptions, no partial credit for close enough.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 07
    Cool. Noted. So that weekend I actually read the formatting section of the syllabus line by line instead of skimming it like everyone else did. Two
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 08
    things jumped out. First, it said the title needs to be centered. It never said what the title had to say, just that it had to be centered.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 09
    Second, it said your name needs to appear in the header. It never said how many times.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 10
    For the next essay my title was just the word "Essay," centered, huge font because there was no size limit listed either. My header had my name in it eleven separate
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 11
    times because technically that still satisfies "your name needs to appear in the header." I also put page numbers on every single
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 12
    page, including a blank works cited page that had nothing on it except the number seven. Turned it in feeling pretty proud of myself honestly.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 13
    College student writing an essay.
    via Kateryna Hliznitsova

    College student writing an essay.

    Picture does not depict real parties.

  • 14
    Got it back and he had docked me formatting points with a note that just said "unprofessional presentation." Next class I raised my hand and asked
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 15
    him to point to the specific rule I had broken. He couldn't, because I hadn't broken a single one, I had just followed them further than anyone expected
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 16
    anyone to. Then I brought up his own quote from a few weeks earlier, in front of the whole room.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 17
    He was obviously annoyed but couldn't argue with his own words without looking ridiculous in front of 40 people, so I got the points
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 18
    back. By the next essay the formatting section of the syllabus had basically doubled in length and every loophole I used was individually closed.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 19
    10/10 would exploit a poorly written rule again.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 20
    TLDR: professor said follow formatting instructions exactly for full credit, I took that way more literally than he expected, he couldn't
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 21
    dock me points without contradicting himself, syllabus got rewritten within a week to patch every hole I found.
    via DoublePreparation241
  • 22
    arizonaraynebows As a teacher, I hate you. As a general rule-breaker, this is brilliant. I despise these professors who add an abundance of specific random rules for tge sake of being ultra pretentious.
    via arizonaraynebows
  • 23
    juntar74 I would have titled my essay "Centered", because the title has to be centered.
    via juntar74
  • 24
    Doctor_Boombastic Ill-advised, but the compliance was malicious.
    via Doctor_Boombastic

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