So what thoughts does this word "Examination" trigger? Do your thoughts have something to do with tension, anxiety, stress, pressure etc? Then perhaps you have guessed the meaning of the word I am targeting at.
I have just been over with one of the papers of my end term exam and the situation was such that, although I had gone through this subject for fun during the semester I had no clue as to what I was going to do in the examination. Approximately 20 hours before the exam I saw the syllabus then googled the terms and settled on wikipedia articles for my study. While my colleagues restlessly mugged up notes provided by faculties and called me an idiot for choosing an unconventional method for preparing in this manner. Although I did have a fair look at the notes, lexically analysing it for tokens which corresponded to subtopics that the examiner would expect to see in my answers. Its not that I am not capable of mugging up but that I do not see any point in doing so without an objective - yeah I know I am crazy.
However, during the examination I somehow managed to write something sensible in the answer to every question that made perfect sense to me and am hoping that it has the same effect on the examiner too. The fact that I am wondering and pondering on is what did I gain / learn in the past few hours? Sure, I had fun reading about Grace Hopper, the first person to have debugged a computer ever, ANWB debugging technique and some more similar stuff that was in no way related to the course. But what was the point in the relentless effort put by the students in to this? Preparing for exams? 24 hours of extreme efforts for what? Marks ? - something that the recruiter won't even have time to glance at? The things that was fed and saved in the brain has probably escaped the tired brains by now and will never ever be tried and recalled.
So what did the system succeed in teaching me? Stress Management skills !!! is that why I am pursuing a course for degree in computer science.
My question is why are the students expected, taught and trained to do something that does not have any future implication? i.e Mug up and reproduce?
And what do these examinations judge the student on ? Their ability to reproduce the stuff they have mugged up in past 24 hours?
Where is the actual meaning of education "imparting / gaining knowledge" been lost?
uff ... there are few more such examinations that I have to go through before I graduate and will continue to waste my time preparing for them. The question still persists .. WHY? WHATS THE POINT?
I have just been over with one of the papers of my end term exam and the situation was such that, although I had gone through this subject for fun during the semester I had no clue as to what I was going to do in the examination. Approximately 20 hours before the exam I saw the syllabus then googled the terms and settled on wikipedia articles for my study. While my colleagues restlessly mugged up notes provided by faculties and called me an idiot for choosing an unconventional method for preparing in this manner. Although I did have a fair look at the notes, lexically analysing it for tokens which corresponded to subtopics that the examiner would expect to see in my answers. Its not that I am not capable of mugging up but that I do not see any point in doing so without an objective - yeah I know I am crazy.
However, during the examination I somehow managed to write something sensible in the answer to every question that made perfect sense to me and am hoping that it has the same effect on the examiner too. The fact that I am wondering and pondering on is what did I gain / learn in the past few hours? Sure, I had fun reading about Grace Hopper, the first person to have debugged a computer ever, ANWB debugging technique and some more similar stuff that was in no way related to the course. But what was the point in the relentless effort put by the students in to this? Preparing for exams? 24 hours of extreme efforts for what? Marks ? - something that the recruiter won't even have time to glance at? The things that was fed and saved in the brain has probably escaped the tired brains by now and will never ever be tried and recalled.
So what did the system succeed in teaching me? Stress Management skills !!! is that why I am pursuing a course for degree in computer science.
My question is why are the students expected, taught and trained to do something that does not have any future implication? i.e Mug up and reproduce?
And what do these examinations judge the student on ? Their ability to reproduce the stuff they have mugged up in past 24 hours?
Where is the actual meaning of education "imparting / gaining knowledge" been lost?
uff ... there are few more such examinations that I have to go through before I graduate and will continue to waste my time preparing for them. The question still persists .. WHY? WHATS THE POINT?
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