obsessed with solution guidebooks?? April 2, 2008

was talking to my bf jus now abt his 6 hr econs lecture ytd..

his lecturer for this revision period is from the University of London LSE.. (they come every yr to giv pre-finals revisions)

my bf den told me dat the local lecturers always hav disagreements wit those from UOL..

y?

becos of vast differences in teaching methods..

UL lect: y do u keep giving the students answers??!

Local lect: well becos dat’s the way we teach!!

UL lect: den ur students wil not think!

Local lect: fine.. ur students think! but they dun think correctly!

blablablabla..

its true dat we.. singaporean students r obsessed with solution guidebooks.. isn’t it?

we care a hell lot abt memorising standard answers.. chunks & chunks of answers.. most of the time we simply can’t b bothered to think- dun giv a damn abt applyin our knowledge and answerin the ques wit our own formulated answers.. instead of answers from TYS

another example is from my law lecturer.. well every yr.. 30 % of the students here fail the law module.. a shockingly high % dat is.. and btw the marketing students make up the bulk.. lolx

so my lecturer actually emailed those peeps over in Melbourne and suggested to them abt writing a law solution bk(since we here basically adore guidebks.. but for law.. its really abt applying the rules correctly and since each case is unique.. model answers ain’t v useful rit? cos no 2 cases wil b identical! minute differences in cases do lead to diverse judgements!). they replied dat they’ve tried b4 n the students in aussie dun support this idea..

furthermore.. i’ve learnt the reason y my lecture notes dun have much past yr questions.. and even if there r.. there’s no solutions to them.. the reason being: students over there dun really care abt past yr questions.. tutorials r sufficient to preparation for exams

maybe u can say dat they ain’t very enthu abt their studies? or they r PLAIN LAZY??

nope i dun think so.. i think its more of.. back to the pt: we sg students wil die if we dun do past yr ques b4 the finals.. n this is equivalent to saying.. we always hav a tendancy to want to predict wad type of ques wil come out.. so dat we feel ’safe’.. so dat we can answer them with our model answers.. so dat we dun need to crack our heads to think..

my bf also felt dat.. its a cultural thing.. isn’t it?

from the chinese culture? if u dunno.. China was once bashed by foreign media for its lack of creativity in their ‘memorise facts’ education system.. and i feel dat its cos of this reason that China always make counterfeit goods? since this thing called invention is not prominent in China.. (yes i do noe dat the chinese invented many useful items like paper and the compass etc)

hmm.. to add on.. idealism and conventions play a part too rit? we(chinese or asians as a whole?) count education as an important factor in determining your success in life..

low education standards = poor paying job = stay rotten in life

as simple as dat.. n conventionality wld mean we dun support thinking out of the box.. doing things dat most pple dun do means u r weird.. stimes it may garner flak den u wil b deemed to fail in life..

ok wadeva i said may be very generalised & vague.. or even biased.. but u can’t deny dat some of it r valid rit?

P.S. i think i did write abt this website in my previous blog.. but nonetheless i’l do it again.. if u lik satire articles.. (like me!!) do surf this website.. its not all crap and lies.. some of the issues r true.. and there r written in a mocking manner enjoy!

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