All my life (until recently) I have been dealing with STEM topics. In my experience doing these problems, you have to be correct at every step. It was also in our education that every step must be present and correct to get full marks. Sometimes even when there is a different and correct way to do a problem, we are asked to use the method that is most likely to be the standard one, because it will be easier for the teachers to grade and have the least risk of being deducted marks. Personally, My thoughts move rather rapidly, and I could be reminded of stuff that sounds totally unrelated but just has a small link in it, and even that link might be only present because of my personal experiences. Therefore I struggled a lot in the education system I grew up in. So I really like the idea that sometimes a wrong move or a seemingly irrelevant step might be the key to the answer.