Extra vertical padding at top of solution environment

Question

I have noticed extra padding at top of my solution environment (using the exam class) especially if you use multicols inside of the solution environment:

\documentclass[addpoints]{exam}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[margin=.75 in]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts,amssymb,amsthm,color,srcltx,enumitem,bm,cancel}
\usepackage{multicol}
%Lengthens \fillin answer lines and raises text above the line so text isn't cut off by the answer line, see documentation http://mirror.utexas.edu/ctan/macros/latex/contrib/exam/examdoc.pdf and this question https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/352246/vertical-spacing-between-fillin-in-exam 
\setlength\fillinlinelength{6.5cm}
\setlength\answerclearance{1.25ex}
%Answerline to right of question, see https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/82152/answerline-to-the-right-of-a-question
\usepackage{letltxmacro}% http://ctan.org/pkg/letltxmacro
\usepackage{xpatch}% http://ctan.org/pkg/etoolbox
\xpatchcmd{\answerline}% <cmd>
  {\par\nobreak\vskip\answerskip}% <search>
  {\leaders\hbox{\hskip0.2em .\hskip0.2em}\hskip 0pt plus 1filll}% <replace>
  {}{}% <success><failure>
\xpatchcmd{\answerline}{\fi \par}{\fi}{}{}% Remove line break after \answerline
\makeatletter
\LetLtxMacro{\oldanswerline}{\answerline}
\RenewDocumentCommand{\answerline}{s o}{%
  \begingroup
  \IfBooleanTF{#1}
    {\def@queslevel{\relax}}% \answerline*
    {}% \answerline
  \IfNoValueTF{#2}
    {\oldanswerline[{}]}% \answerline
    {\oldanswerline[#2]}% \answerline[..]
  \endgroup
}
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}
\printanswers
\begin{document}
\begin{questions}
\question Show that $f(x)=x+8$ and $g(y)=y-8$ are inverses.
\begin{solution}
\begin{multicols}{2}
\begin{align}
f(g(y))&=(y-8)+8 \
&= y
\end{align}
\columnbreak
\begin{align}
g(f(x)) &= (x+8)-8 \
&=x
\end{align}
\end{multicols}
\end{solution}
\end{questions}
\end{document}

Some notes:

I think \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5} makes the problem worse, but I don't want to remove this as I like the 1.5 spacing throughout the rest of the document.
Deleting the spaces / blank lines before and after \columnbreak helps, but then it causes the right column to be higher than the left column (why?)

Thanks!

Edit: Thanks to John Kormylo for the idea:

\begin{solution}
\abovedisplayskip=0pt
\belowdisplayskip=0pt
\multicolsep=0pt
...
\end{solution}

Is there a way to to take care of this globally in the preamble, or perhaps define a new solution environment (like solution*?), so I don't have to remember to write it for every solution environment?

This is the same problem addressed here:" Spurious space above align environment at top of page/minipage — barbara beeton, Jun 02 '20 at 00:09
You can set \abovedisplayskip=0pt and \belowdisplayskip=0pt locally (inside solution). You also might try \multicolsep=0pt. — John Kormylo, Jun 02 '20 at 02:54
Hi Barbara, I tried the \usepackage{etoolbox} \makeatletter \pretocmd\start@align{% \if@minipage\kern-\topskip\kern-\abovedisplayskip\fi }{}{} \makeatother but it had no effect on the solution environment. Changing the word minipage to solution didn't work either. — EthanAlvaree, Jun 02 '20 at 08:24
Hi John, thanks for the tip! Is there any way to take care of this globally in the preamble, so I don't have to remember to write it for every solution environment? — EthanAlvaree, May 24 '21 at 07:49
Just bumping this topic. Is there a way to define a new solution environment (maybe solution*?) macro in the form
\begin{solution} \abovedisplayskip=0pt \belowdisplayskip=0pt \multicolsep=0pt ... \end{solution} — EthanAlvaree, Apr 15 '22 at 20:16

Extra vertical padding at top of solution environment

0 Answers0