Britain getting cleverer

@panda12 wrote:

@pikey wrote:

Teachers certainly do coach for success at exams. Like I say, I don’t blame them. I’ve had many a friend tell me stories of how the grapevine communicating the ‘flavour’ of the upcoming tests works. The brighter kids go in to tests having a fail-safe selection of essay answers ‘rote’ learnt.

Yes it’s called past papers – looking at previous exam questions and getting kids to answer them.

So I guess the exam boards are at fault for not setting totally random questions?

And it’s not just the “brighter” kids that benefit – it’s any kid that is prepared to put in the hard work and study and the desire to learn.

As for “rote” learnt – the fact you can read and write is “rote” learnt. The mere fact you can express an opinion is not “rote” learnt. That is down to education developing your mind. :roll:

Rote learning, unless I am very much mistaken, is to learn something by repeating it often enough it sticks. But, you can memorise mathematical equations or great chunks of shakespeare, and pass exams as a result. But this does not mean that their minds are trained in thinking. Original thought cannot be taught, but give someone the time and space and tools to truly learn, and hey presto, original ideas are born. If you churn out scores of youngsters who can pass exams, you are missing the opportunity of teaching them how to think.