I have had a lot of ****ty professors, and a couple really good ones.
Grading labs are usually done best if the reports show some sort of knowledge of the key concepts of what you taught.
Exams are a niche of each prof's personality. The best exams I had were made from the actual homework. Watch it sounds too easy, but take into the account that you have maybe 200 homework problems from that section of material that you will be testing. People will still fail it.
Lastly don't be that guy that gives "busy work"..... People have other classes to go to.
