Personally, I'd be interested in a dialogue between your dad and two Asian philosophers. =) And I'm sure that your paper isn't as bad as you think. So there.

And no, not getting a perfect (or even a good) score doesn't mean you don't understand something. It might mean that you just made a stupid mistake. When I screwed up solving an algebraic system today, did that mean that I don't know how to do those, even though I've been doing them since 7th grade?

So, Hermione, try not to worry about it too much. Okay? Good. =)