There is no easy way to convey the meaning of goals (or intended learning outcomes), criteria, and standards to students. On the contrary, there are a number of studies stressing the difficulties students encounter when trying to decipher feedback and the content of course documents (e.g. Price et al., 2010). Still, there are some studies showing that when sharing scoring rubrics with students, they tend to appreciate the transparency provided and sometimes they also perform better when having access to a rubric (e.g. Andrade & Du, 2005; Jonsson, 2010). Furthermore, in a couple of studies, students’ self-regulation strategies have improved when using rubrics (Panadero, 2011). Obviously, there is some kind of paradox in relation to transparency, where students on one hand do not seem to understand the goals, criteria, and standards, but on the other hand, they appreciate transparency and are also – at least under some circumstances – able to actually use this transparency to affect their learning. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this paradox in relation to an investigation of how rubrics are used and perceived by students in professional education.