Questions and Answers

When comparing the United States to other countries in Math. I was wondering if the tests have the exact same questions. Are they questions asked in a way where the students need to think and discover the answer (as the way we are being taught in class) or are they well defined so the students know exactly what they teacher/test is asking of them? I think it would be fair to compare our progress with other countries if the questions were the same, but I'm more curious about wether or not it's how we were taught math or how we were taught to thought process.

As a kid, I remember having problem solving questions that I could go one way or another if this…or if that… but I never knew what the teacher would be grading me on, so I would spend my time trying to guess what the teacher wanted. Then time would be running down because I had spent all my time trying to think of different senerios. Finally, I would just have to guess on following questions because I ran out of time. Which leads to another question: If the tests are going to be timed and determine someones math ability, shouldn't the questions be well-defined? I personally like problem solving questions and could sometimes spend forever trying to figure out different possible answers, so I think it would be nice if tests questions were either ill-defined and have no time limit or well-defined if there is a time limit.