Friday, September 08, 2006
Lol, here comes the ritualistic exam fever once more. People working themselves into a frenzy, be it real or fake, mugging as if their entire lives depended on it. Which is why I dont see the point in exams. Do exams breed understanding in the topic concerned? No. Are exams a true gauge of one's abilities? No. Why do we take exams? For the certificate and nothing else. What a waste of time.
People have traditionally studied for exams by pure mugging, memorising their way through that is. What an efficient method of studying. We study all the types of questions that are likely to come out for exams, memorising how to answer the questions, never once pausing the understand the mechanism working behind it. When the exam questions come up, we find that the teachers have diablolically changed the question slightly. Suddenly, it as if we have seen a whole new world. The eyes glaze over, the mouth drops. And we find that we do not know how to solve the question. Goes to show how efficient our method of studying is. Why don't we understand the mechanism behind it? It would make our job much simpler. Understanding the mechanism, means that we can solve all the variations of the same type.
People who study for sciences somehow tend to study the chapters disjointedly. We tend to think each chapter in isolation. Which is a complete mistake. Because the sciences are not meant to be studied this way. The sciences have a backbone linking all the chapters together. Hence, questions usually cross between several topics simultaneuously. For example, Kinematics, dynamics, conservation of linear momentum, energy, forces, come under a big name called mechanics. An area of the study of particles. Hence questions would ask anything under this. Under mechanics is another big sub chapter known as rotational dynamics. Here the topics are Circular motion, SHM, torque. This chapters are also the link to Wave mechanics, topics underneath are waves, light, diffraction, standing waves, resonance etc etc. So there is a sort of over arching principle that can give us leverage when solving problems. Use it.
I am not saying not to memorise anything, just that we can minimise the amount to be memorised drastically and save a lot of brain space. Which is a bonus, when you have less than 3 weeks the study 4 subjects.
I never liked the way we are examined under this system, because the system emphasises a major part on memorising and time management. I prefer to slowly think through the problem. Give a complete solution to the problem. Thats the way things should be. Not hurry your way through the paper, leaving gaping blanks; questions that are answered have tons of careless mistakes. Why not go for more creative thinking.
But perhaps there is no right way for testing knowledge..i believe no one in the world has found a correct way yet. Perhaps there might be breakthrough in times to come. Perhaps. In the meantime, more people will fall under the cutting edge of exams.
