Originally posted by kt san
...HSC really is testing ur memory more so than ur understanding...
I agree in some light, there are certain subjects that it does become like a memory dump ... though I have to say Business Studies and Economics render themselves to greater "understanding" due to the fact you don't what focus you're going to have to draw. Particularly for short-answers. I mean you have stimulus material, how are you going to be able to memorise? Furthermore in Business Studies (I know this is off subject - but hey it backs up my point) the first extended response is wholly stimulus/hypothetical business based ... you can't memorise anything for that no matter how much you want to. Furthermore in Economics, I suppose you could have "generic" essay responses, but at the same time they can do something quite tricky ... I highly doubt that the 2002 Eco students had memorised an essay on Protection Policies in different economies, because yes though it's part of the syllabus ... it's not something "generic" you think of when you're doing essays to memorise.
I think that the HSC is to test (minus English maybe after the 2003 papers) the students who memorise and then those that actually apply, synthesise, analyse ... That they apply their memory and take what they've memorised in class and their study sessions until it's actually entrenched in their minds ... and then understand how to use it? Isn't that what differentiates the "good" students from the "better" and "far more able" candidates?
... And by that I'm making no claim to being a "better" student! I'd be happy with "a student who might happen to know what an economy is but we can't really tell due to her incoherency", but I can't wholly agree that the HSC is about memorising. I think it is only up to a certain degree ... particularly for humanities such as Economics and Business Studies, when it becomes about understanding it.
My little rant is over
. And I wasn't having a go at you even if it sounded like that, sorry! It's just ... I don't really believe in pre-prepared essays, and gets to me that people who don't have pre-prepared essays actually have to think as opposed to those that have them. And it takes too much energy to memorise a whole essay
!
Bah, each to their own though.