I personally can't memorise essays. I can remember nice lines and main points/structures that I can use or slightly adapt for any essay, but I can't just rely on memorising one essay because I get really paranoid about it then not fitting the question at all. I understand why some people choose to memorise though, especially if they're good at adapting their essays to suit the question on the spot. But I don't get how someone would memorise an essay for a subject other than English though? For example Modern -- because they can ask you a really wide range of questions whereas the stuff we do in English invites pretty much only a couple of variations on the same question. But yeah that's just me.
I'm with Getta, although I couldn't even memorise an essay for English either. Personally, I don't think you learn anything from blindly memorising anything and isn't it the goal of education to learn? I think it's better to use the hours of rewriting and memorising one essay to learn the material itself and actually understand it so that you can write for any question that comes up.
I agree completely with Lil. Personally, I think it is sad that for some people, 13 years of learning boils down to a few memorised essays. Deep in my self-righteous mind, I cannot imagine that teachers who encourage this exam technique feel an awful lot of job satisfaction in comparison with those who know that their students have the legitimate ability to answer any question that comes to them.
Yeah but you have to understand that the HSC final exams are not an accurate representation of how intelligent a person is. It is how well you can vomit out information in 40 minutes to an hour. Not all people have the ability to address essay questions which come to them, we are all lucky to have gone to a school where the teachers actually KNOW what it is that will get you a band 6. But for the vast majority of kids who did not have the benefit of selective or private education I think it's better to have a decent response memorised (which one would hope would be able to be adapted to the question) than to just sit in the exam freaking out, which is what some people do. I have terrible nerves, I understand why having the security of something memorised would be appealing.
I know in an ideal world we'd be learning for the sake of bettering ourselves but St George, despite what Ms Knott has said, is prestigious because it gets students into university. It's about doing well in exams, not about being intelligent. If it was, then most of the girls at our school wouldn't be so socially inept.
I'm with Gaby. I think that school hasn't been about students actually learning a topic/subject for a long time, it's just about getting results in an exam. I know there are some really passionate teachers at our school that want kids to genuinely care about and be interested in their subjects and not just knowing what they need to know for an exam, but seriously, how many people do you know in our grade who took a subject because they actually really liked it? Of the classes I'm in, I'd say I only get that vibe from my French and Modern classes. Lots of people do subjects they think scale really well or just need to make up their units and keep them even though they hate them (seems like half the people I know who do chemistry or physics are like this half the time).
I personally can't memorise essays. I can remember nice lines and main points/structures that I can use or slightly adapt for any essay, but I can't just rely on memorising one essay because I get really paranoid about it then not fitting the question at all. I understand why some people choose to memorise though, especially if they're good at adapting their essays to suit the question on the spot. But I don't get how someone would memorise an essay for a subject other than English though? For example Modern -- because they can ask you a really wide range of questions whereas the stuff we do in English invites pretty much only a couple of variations on the same question. But yeah that's just me.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Getta, although I couldn't even memorise an essay for English either.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think you learn anything from blindly memorising anything and isn't it the goal of education to learn? I think it's better to use the hours of rewriting and memorising one essay to learn the material itself and actually understand it so that you can write for any question that comes up.
I agree completely with Lil. Personally, I think it is sad that for some people, 13 years of learning boils down to a few memorised essays. Deep in my self-righteous mind, I cannot imagine that teachers who encourage this exam technique feel an awful lot of job satisfaction in comparison with those who know that their students have the legitimate ability to answer any question that comes to them.
ReplyDeleteYeah but you have to understand that the HSC final exams are not an accurate representation of how intelligent a person is. It is how well you can vomit out information in 40 minutes to an hour. Not all people have the ability to address essay questions which come to them, we are all lucky to have gone to a school where the teachers actually KNOW what it is that will get you a band 6. But for the vast majority of kids who did not have the benefit of selective or private education I think it's better to have a decent response memorised (which one would hope would be able to be adapted to the question) than to just sit in the exam freaking out, which is what some people do. I have terrible nerves, I understand why having the security of something memorised would be appealing.
ReplyDeleteI know in an ideal world we'd be learning for the sake of bettering ourselves but St George, despite what Ms Knott has said, is prestigious because it gets students into university. It's about doing well in exams, not about being intelligent. If it was, then most of the girls at our school wouldn't be so socially inept.
I'm with Gaby. I think that school hasn't been about students actually learning a topic/subject for a long time, it's just about getting results in an exam. I know there are some really passionate teachers at our school that want kids to genuinely care about and be interested in their subjects and not just knowing what they need to know for an exam, but seriously, how many people do you know in our grade who took a subject because they actually really liked it? Of the classes I'm in, I'd say I only get that vibe from my French and Modern classes. Lots of people do subjects they think scale really well or just need to make up their units and keep them even though they hate them (seems like half the people I know who do chemistry or physics are like this half the time).
ReplyDelete