In my organic chemistry class you could be right on 90% through a 20-step synthesis, but if step 18 was incorrect, you got no credit at all.
Life is harsh, your reality growing up should take that into account. We'd have a stronger nation today without partial credit. But forget about partial credit, we've got bigger problems. Heck, we live in a country whose president thinks ID should be taught in science classes, so basically our education system is the laughing stock of the world (which is almost certainly flat, looks that way from space anyway.)
