Is studying for tests and examinations an end in itself?
Letter to be submitted to The Rafflesian Times, and possibly, other publications.

Is studying for tests and examinations an end in itself?

After observing the general student populace for some time, I have discovered with much dismay that many students, in fact, study for the sake of taking tests and examinations, and forget all about what they had studied after the test or examination. This is an important issue as it concerns fundamental questions on why we even go to schools to study in the first place. Do we study just to get good grades for tests and examinations, or we study to acquire invaluable skills and knowledge which will help us in the future?

I noticed that for whatever lesson, there would be students who would always not be concentrating in class. They would engage in their own little discussions, or daydream, being totally oblivious about what the teacher is saying. They do not learn anything at all. Other students might concentrate on what the teacher is saying, but once the lesson is over, they tend to stop thinking about the previous lesson, and set themselves for another lesson. These students do not revise what was being taught in the lessons, and soon forget many details and facts. Life goes on as usual, and what they have learnt is quickly filed away in their head as more data and information are being fed to the student.

When the examinations or tests come, they start studying furiously, usually the night or a few days before, trying to squeeze everything into their head (a technique known as ‘cramming’), and regurgitate it all out during the test or examination.

An interesting thing happens after the test. I found out that many students actually totally forget what they had previously learnt – it is as if they had returned all they had learned back to the teacher after the test or examination. Is there then a point in studying at all in the first place? Take a common example, Chinese spelling – Usually, most students would only study the day or two before the actual test. They may indeed have good instant recall memory, and thus do very well for the test. However, only after a very short period after the test – as short as a few days, students would have forgotten most of what they had learnt. Since they do not remember anything, is there then a point in studying in the first place?

I am not saying that memorizing facts and information is useless. In fact, it is very important. By having a wealth of knowledge of facts and details and being able to recall them well, it will help us to process this data, and to connect them with one another when thought is given to them. A strong web of inter-connected facts, ideas, and knowledge can then be created, and this is essential in understanding and finding new solutions to problems which are becoming more and more complex and changing with time. Only with a firm foundation and good understanding will new knowledge and understanding be generated. The problem is that many students do not bother to do this. There is thus no point in having so much data, but not doing anything with it.

However, there are several possible reasons and factors which might cause this to happen. One of them might be the large amount of schoolwork and large number of subjects. Students have to handle so many subjects, and are required to study and remember so much. Students may therefore feel too stressed out, or have no time at all, to revise and review what was gone through during the lesson, and at the last minute, cram everything in just to take the test.

Another of them would be that because of the huge amount of things the student has to study, he might feel that there is no point in studying them as a lot of what is taught would be actually be of any practical use when he grows up. As such, he studies only for the sake of taking the test or examination. Perhaps, the curriculum is too crammed and thus the student has no time to think and digest what he has learnt.

It is interesting to note the mechanization of the student. A typical student may follow this routine by day – wake up, go to school to study, go home to do homework and study, sleep… and the cycle continues. The student is being treated like a hard disk drive if you will, and every day, is continually fed more information, and he is expected to be able to recall all the data with precision and accuracy. This is obviously impossible as the student is after all human.

Perhaps many have been so caught up with studying that they do not even pause to think about this issue. Nonetheless, I urge students to spare some time and properly reflect on what the whole purpose of studying in school is. We as students spend a huge part of our life studying in several levels of institutions. It is therefore important for us to ask what the ultimate objective of investing our time and effort is. If the purpose and vision of our endeavor in our youth is not correctly identified, the maximum reward from the investment of our precious personal resources cannot be fully realised.

Gao Guangyan, Raffles Institution, 16 Aug 2004
 

(16 Aug 2004)

* The above article was eventually published in the 2004 end quarter Rafflesian Times*

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