My buddy did his first dissertation in the UK and they didn't give him any format suggestions or guidelines, but they still criticized him for choosing APA IMRaD.
Oh I've experienced this.
They explained that I should know which formatting is traditional for that field. Just like how it's understood that I'll put my name and date on it.
They were looking for IEEE formatting. (This was my first time hearing about this at all)
I gave them MLA.
laughs in Hong Kong students
So there's this exam called the DSE exam that is a VERY BIG deal as it determines if you can get into university and thus your future career.
There was a subject called Liberal Studies, and you basically an entire essay for each question. Every high school LS teacher will teach you the templates of different types of questions so you can score points.
At one point, the HKEAA (the group that organises the exam) asked the teachers to not teach the templates, but it's almost impossible to score anything if you don't follow the template.
So no one listened, and it was still how it was taught until the subject got cancelled.
