The black students I worked with in the 90s *wanted* to learn and passed really well. Most of the students I worked with in the 00s (all races) wanted to jôl.
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Article: Pass black matrics, asks SADTU KZN
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The black students I worked with in the 90s *wanted* to learn and passed really well. Most of the students I worked with in the 00s (all races) wanted to jôl.
techead
Honorary Master
to all of you who basted me the other day for my comment in the "I hate blacks" thread
well after reading this article I rest my case... enough said. period.
and you wonder why a generation of young white people are getting aggro and harbor resentment
well after reading this article I rest my case... enough said. period.
and you wonder why a generation of young white people are getting aggro and harbor resentment
I've been lecturing at a major University for the last year and a half. The last thing that we need right now is to lower the bar in secondary education.
The fact that I had to spend both my revision lectures with my second year class teaching students test-taking strategy (something that they should have been taught in early high school at the latest) speaks volumes about how perilously close the education system is to losing it's ability to produce academically and intellectually active graduates.
The fact that I had to spend both my revision lectures with my second year class teaching students test-taking strategy (something that they should have been taught in early high school at the latest) speaks volumes about how perilously close the education system is to losing it's ability to produce academically and intellectually active graduates.
Nah, I mean like how to read a question. Read the question - read it again - look at the mark allocation - try to determine exactly what the examiner is trying to get out of you.
Or how to answer questions. i.e. answer questions as if the person who is marking is hearing this all for the first time. Don't expect the person who is marking to draw conclusions for you.
Basic stuff like that.
porchrat
Honorary Master
No you learn how to take exams and tests. Didn't you develop a system for exams? Not only a system on how to maximise your study-time and the the benefit you got from study-time but also a system for actually sitting the exam?
For example I initially always read through the whole paper. Those questions I don't know or know very vaguely (maybe 1 or 2 marks out of 10) get circled, those I'm sort of 50% on but leaning more towards being able to answer comprehensively get an underline, those I'm sort of 50% on but leaning more towards answering badly get a double underline and those I'm certain of get left untouched. That way when I read back through I know which questions I need to focus on and add information to.
Also learning to look at the total marks the paper is out of, the time you get for the paper and working out your marks/minute. Then checking whether or not the paper is double-marking (2 marks per point instead of just 1... it happens). Using this you can determine roughly how long you should spend on each section and how much time you want to leave yourself for the essay question(s) should there be any.
To me exam technique is very important. I had to work out my own technique but it would have been nice if someone had actually given us a brief course on it during high school.
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the graduate
Senior Member
You deduce from the question asked and the mark allocation to what degree you need to respond and show you understanding of the work you are being tested on...
Derive an equation... (2)
Derive from first principles an equation... (10)
My thoughts exactly - it's the basics. We assumed it was common knowledge/logic.
I see what you mean, but aside from a teacher spending 5mins before the exam telling you exactly those points you listed - I've never encountered any formal lessons on it.
The hardest "prepping" that I encountered was for technical drawing, where you had 1 A3 sheet to do 5 drawings on. It was up to you to space your drawings correctly or suffer running out of paper. Most of it was construction assemblies & 2d-to-3d conversions which you couldn't just measure off the bat.
I dunno, maybe we were just left a bit more to our own device in the earlier days.
Exactly. If you spend 20mins on a question worth 2 marks then you're an idiot.
Surely you develop these skills with test papers from as soon as grade 4 ?
KillerX
Expert Member
These days, skin color is a nice excuse and standards just get dropped further and further. I keep in touch with people from UJ and they say matriculants coming into the system now don't even have BASIC reading and comprehension skills. That is why the first year drop out rate is so high.
Our education system has always been a dismal failure at preparing people for post-school study.
In my opinion this training has always been generally lacking.
This has been a failing of the school system for decades. A complete failure to teach study skills, how to learn, how to take an exam, how to solve problems. Yes some of these things come naturally to some people, but they are skills that can and should be taught. It's completely ludicrous that simply assume people know how to do these things.
Kosmik
Honorary Master
Dear SADTU,
F*** U!
thnx.
F*** U!
thnx.
gregmcc
Honorary Master
They're being racist - saying black students are stupid and need to be pushed through!
Nothing I hear on the news surprises me anymore!
Nothing I hear on the news surprises me anymore!
Nothxkbi
Banned
blunomore
Honorary Master
Nom Chompsky
High Tory
Sorry but can someone explain what are 'study skills' ?
I simply learn and - more importantly - understand the content that is going to be tested.
What more is there to it really?
I simply learn and - more importantly - understand the content that is going to be tested.
What more is there to it really?
diabolus
Executive Member
Well you don't "study" for Maths the same way you would for English or History do you? Knowing the difference is already part of that i would assume. Figuring out how to study for maths or history [and how the one requires alot more comprehension rather than memorizing facts] . So saying "you just learn" is as vague as saying "the sky is blue" .
and they blame mother tongue education, now it is very ironic that the DOE sent a memo to all the Single Medium Afrikaans schools last week wanting them to progressively transform into parallel and then eventually English only schools. The DOE have been warned for years now that Mother tongue education provide the best results, every year at the end of the school the black students, their teachers and their unions complain that they aren't doing enough, but they still haven't made any progress in the right direction, instead they moved the other way around.
You have fundamentals set in your home language, things that come naturally to you doesn't come so naturally to a person who cannot comprehend and is to lazy to do so. The ratio of black students who actually do make it through varsity compared to though who drop out, is much lower than any other group in the country. Mother tongue education has been listed and proven to be the route cause, but many of them feel that their home language offer no significant value and no one has had the will to try and translate some of it. In some languages that can bearly count past 10, how are they suppose to comprehend complicated algebra?