If I turn in a test with my work on it, is that work under copyright by me or the teacher? If the teacher does not want to give me the test contents, can I ask for my answers to the questions as intellectual property?
Also, my goal is to be able to see my answers on a test after I have taken it.
While Googling I could only find blogs/posts on avoiding copyright infringement, I had a hard time finding other resources.
I think this question should be interpreted according to the goal you have:
my goal is to be able to see my answer on an assessment after I have taken it.
You could ask a lawyer about your precise rights under copyright law, this Q&A site is not a place to ask for legal advice and any answer is going to depend on your jurisdiction and the relevant law/case law for that jurisdiction.
However, regarding your goal, I think the approach trying to compel your instructors under some legalesque framework to return your assignment so that you can see your answers is a bad way to proceed.
Your instructor likely has a reason they do not want to return the completed work to you; I'm guessing the reason is to protect future exams/assessments by making it more difficult to share past years' responses with a future class. Alternatively it could be that they don't have the time to provide this to everyone and see it as unfair to provide the service just for you.
Maybe they have a good reason, maybe not, but you're best off explaining to your instructor the reasons you would like to see the assignment. You'll probably make more progress if you have pedagogical reasons ("I'd like to understand what I did right/what I did wrong") rather than grade-grubbing reasons ("I'd like to argue for points back").
Consider that a reasonable response by an instructor to a student who argued that their assignments must be returned to them for some legal reason might be to simply not have that student anymore. (my understanding of copyright law is that there is no basis for such a request, but I'm also arguing that there's no good reason for you to pursue that argument even if there was)
To the extent that there is creative work, such as a nontrivial mathematical proof or computer program, you most likely hold the copyright. The only exception would be if you explicitly relinquished that copyright. That does not, however, mean that an instructor is required to return their copy of the work to you. If you didn't make a copy before turning it in, or if you turned it in under the condition (known to you) that you would not be permitted to copy or publish it, you will have no recourse.
Where I work, the issue you raise is not a matter of copyright but of university policy: students are given the right to collect marked assignments and midterms, and keep said work, precisely for the reasons you give and so they can assess their academic progress through the class. Thus I would start by searching for such a policy at your school. (Note that students can ask to see their marked copy of final exam but not keep it.)
IANAL but it seems highly unlikely that submitting an assignment paper transfers the copyright to the instructor, although the instructor holds the copyright to the actual assignment questions.
Copyright can only be applied to "creative works". Its purpose is to protect the financial interest of the creator in such works for a period of time.
It is doubtful, but not impossible, that a court would consider student assignments and exams as "creative" in any sense. Most such things deal with "common knowledge" even though not yet known to students, perhaps.
But an assignment to "write a poem on subject X" would end up with a creative work, though, perhaps, of questionable quality. Likewise some "open ended questions" might qualify, even in something like CS.
But an instructor would have no rights to any creative work produced solely by a student. If it is subject to copyright at all, the rights are held by the creator.
See: https://copyright.uslegal.com
The separate question, unrelated to copyright, is whether you have a right to feedback on what you write in a test. My opinion is that you do, indeed, and any sensible system will have a way to provide that. It doesn't mean, however, that you have a right to carry away a copy of what you turned in, but you should at least have an opportunity to speak with a professor on the quality of what you write there.
And if you think something you write for an exam is worthy of publication, there is no reason that you can't take those ideas and produce something based on it. For that, you will have copyright.
In my country (Sweden), the test is part of a government decision (a grade), and is therefore technically a document which must be publicly available upon request.
That is, anyone can ask for (a copy of) this document (other students, other teachers, etc). All finals are scanned and stored, but the duration required to keep it is 2 years, I think.
Note, though, this does not mean you lose copyright of your work; just that it must be available.
Your question must be interpreted with right to information law but not intellectual property rights etc. I have been in research work to place such a petition before the Concerned court as in Pakistan ( I'm from Pakistan) rule of law is a big challenge and I want to help my countrymen in this regard and had been in research works since 2-3 months. I found some rulings of Indian supreme court which had allowed the candidates to inspect as well as get certified copies of their answer papers. (Aditya case). It's all about the right to information. The only defence point from the opposite is it's the fiduciary rights thus cannot yeild the copies or allow the inspection of answer papers to the candidates this view is not covered by the right to information act. Advocate High Court Malak Usman Rumi Tareen Pakistan.
