Eh I have mixed feelings, in some fields yes I 100% agree I’d say MOST fields I fully agree but there are fields where this would get people hurt or killed, medicine, architecture, civil engineering etc. where I do think cheating can have very serious consequences.
I do also think that exams are often a pretty bad way of checking how well a concept is understood and grades often show how well certain things are memorized instead.
I should probably do some more research before I say anything more about this though as that impression is mostly anecdotal.
That is how exams usually are though for classes like physics, chemistry, and physics where memorization won’t save you with it being solving problems to arrive to the correct solution.
Something like anatomy is pure memorization so being memorization is no issue, since it is just learning names of musicles, nerves, and bones. And when it comes to classes like physiology it builds on knowing what you knew from anatomy, but being tested on how well you can actually explain the mechanisms of what is going on within the body.
I guess it depends on the subject if an exam is just memorization based or not and leaves students knowing nothing.
I had one class in University during my programming degree I didn’t understand at all. It was as if I was missing 3 classes of buildup, super advanced maths. No matter how much I asked for help or studied, I just didn’t get it. I was actually really distressed by it.
In desperation, I just memorised every question and answer in the book. Every day, hours of rote memorisation. The exam is worth 60%… and I ended up with a distinction grade. I think that’s equivalent to an A- or 3.7 GPA in North American.
I still have zero understanding of that class, and I’ve never needed to use it either. It feels like they just threw it in there as torture filler. I think that’s a perfect example of what you mean.
I guess that’s fair, but most of the complaining about this I see online is for stuff like people not writing their own essays. I also think the more pressing issue that’s getting people killed in those cases are artificial barriers to access, like if the barriers to practicing medicine were drastically reduced then at least people would be able to get treatment to begin with, and it’s not like having gotten good grades by successfully cramming for exams guarantees professional competence.
Eh I have mixed feelings, in some fields yes I 100% agree I’d say MOST fields I fully agree but there are fields where this would get people hurt or killed, medicine, architecture, civil engineering etc. where I do think cheating can have very serious consequences.
I do also think that exams are often a pretty bad way of checking how well a concept is understood and grades often show how well certain things are memorized instead.
I should probably do some more research before I say anything more about this though as that impression is mostly anecdotal.
That is how exams usually are though for classes like physics, chemistry, and physics where memorization won’t save you with it being solving problems to arrive to the correct solution.
Something like anatomy is pure memorization so being memorization is no issue, since it is just learning names of musicles, nerves, and bones. And when it comes to classes like physiology it builds on knowing what you knew from anatomy, but being tested on how well you can actually explain the mechanisms of what is going on within the body.
I guess it depends on the subject if an exam is just memorization based or not and leaves students knowing nothing.
I had one class in University during my programming degree I didn’t understand at all. It was as if I was missing 3 classes of buildup, super advanced maths. No matter how much I asked for help or studied, I just didn’t get it. I was actually really distressed by it.
In desperation, I just memorised every question and answer in the book. Every day, hours of rote memorisation. The exam is worth 60%… and I ended up with a distinction grade. I think that’s equivalent to an A- or 3.7 GPA in North American.
I still have zero understanding of that class, and I’ve never needed to use it either. It feels like they just threw it in there as
torturefiller. I think that’s a perfect example of what you mean.I guess that’s fair, but most of the complaining about this I see online is for stuff like people not writing their own essays. I also think the more pressing issue that’s getting people killed in those cases are artificial barriers to access, like if the barriers to practicing medicine were drastically reduced then at least people would be able to get treatment to begin with, and it’s not like having gotten good grades by successfully cramming for exams guarantees professional competence.