First congrats to your son for his success in passing the test. Congrats to you for taking the time to go with him and experience this with him.

Second if you expect the hunter safety courses to teach you anything about hunting then you will be disappointed. The course is a safety course not a hunting course. The test is not made to fail people only to make them pay attention to the material that is covered during the course. In Iowa you can not fail the test but they do not tell you that they allow you to think that it is pass or don't hunt. If you sent people into the course with the understanding that they only had to put in thier time without a test they would not pay as much attention.
Some of these people are being exposed to gun safety for the first time. What seems easy to us may be hard to them. How many times have you seen someone cross a fence without handing thier gun to someone or placing it on the ground then crossing? I hunt with some very safe people and we can all use alittle reminder now and then.
Don't take the class so literally they are not trying to teach any sort of hunting skill only expose as many people as possible to hunting safety.
How many of you have been in a class when someone has not passed? Ever see the instructor take them aside and talk to them to find out why? Most 11 year olds will pass this class with flying colors but there are those out there who have not been taught safety prior to the course or need some help to understand it. These courses help find those people. It is like the drivers license test you can not learn how to drive by taking it but it makes you study to pass it.

" Anyone can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a Dad"