That may backfire. I remember my physics homework/tests and going to absurd levels to satisfy the requirements and not do the boring work. I did things like a freehand graph with important points marked and a curve labelled "parabola", because that's the information the teacher was after and spending time actually drawing it to scale and precisely was boring. (after 20th time or so)

I actually lost interest in the subject around that time, even after scoring high enough in regional competition previously to get a free choice of any high school.

So watch out, you may kill someone's enthusiasm by making them practice simple things the way you think is best to satisfy some silly rules. I ended up more happy not getting full marks on something I could do well than showing the work.

Yeah that's not really what I meant by "practice." I meant just give them the text book and tell them to make sure they understand how to do the problems without looking them up, and that the best way to do that is to do the "practice problems" that look difficult.

> Sometimes they’ll find a way to optimize the work away.

As would plenty of other adults, myself included. Whether that's evidence that children don't have much different self-motivation than adults, or that my self-motivation skills are still childish - that I'm not sure.