Smart stupid bastards (3 Viewers)

[snakybus]

ahem

ring a ding dong

 

[billygannon]

bollocks

you can say that the school/college results aren't representative of intelligence, but one thing they can do is represent how hard someone worked on something

sure it's a memory test, but if you work your ass off at learning shit off then you'll do well

Right... I'm a lazy bollox. But if it weren't for exams, I'd have never gotten through school or college.
I know lots of people who worked their arse off during a college year, only to fuck up at exam time because they can't deal with the pressure.
So it isn't a reflection of how hard working you are. It's just a reflection of how you deal with the pressure of an exam situation.

if you've done well then potential employers will know you worked hard to get those results and will therefore work hard for them

i've known plenty of people who probably couldn't be described as intelligent by any stretch of the imagination, but they work hard and do well despite their shortcomings

intelligence counts for nothing if you're lazy dudes

People learn stuff in very different ways. The learning-off-by-heart method only works for a small minority of people. Most people are kinesthetic or visual learners - something that isn't that prevalent in schools today.

And on top of that, the Leaving Cert points system is inherently flawed.

Ah! I could go on - but have to go back to work.

Anyway, exams don't reflect how hard-working or intelligent you are. They only reflect how you've dealt with an exam situation. And that's it.

 

[Alan Remorse]

yeah, fair enough
continuous assessment seems like a better option alright
but i still think that a good deal of people who do badly have themselves to blame

 

[broken arm]

oh look, a desktop school!!!!

 

[classic seanc]

i went to school with a couple of girls who werent necessarily dumb, but they acted as if they were absolutely fucked for exams. every time. and every fucking time, they got all A's.

Well, those girls must have multiplied themselves by a hundred and all gone and done my course, cuz that's what EVERY--------SINGLE------------PERSON here is like. Except me of course, I'm special , anyway, it really grinds my fuckin gears when people do the "oh my GOD loike, I'm soooo y'know, totally fucked, its not even funny" and then they do fantastically well, without a single hair goin out of place.


grrrrr!! It gets my goat.

 

[egg_]

Anyway, exams don't reflect how hard-working or intelligent you are. They only reflect how you've dealt with an exam situation. And that's it.

I've always been pretty good at dealing with exams, but a few times I went in without knowing my shit, and did badly. There's a bit more to it than just performance skills

 

[Alan Remorse]

pretty much the only times i've freaked going into exams were when i hadn't covered enough stuff
it's pretty rare that someone who has everything covered and has no reason to panic will actually start freaking out
and by the way, if someone cant deal with the stress of exams then they're pretty much fucked if they want to do anything but work in a newsagents for the rest of their life
dealing with stress is all a part of it

 

[egg_]

anyway, it really grinds my fuckin gears when people do the "oh my GOD loike, I'm soooo y'know, totally fucked, its not even funny"

Chill out about it, feller, it isn't necessarily a put on - some people are just nutty. I've got some super-achiever cousins (600 points, top of their class in college etc) who consistently cracked up around exam time cos they genuinely thought they were going to fail.

 

[classic seanc]

No I'm alright. I just won a free bottle of coca-cola!! Hooray for me!

 

[quasiquasi]

Chill out about it, feller, it isn't necessarily a put on - some people are just nutty. I've got some super-achiever cousins (600 points, top of their class in college etc) who consistently cracked up around exam time cos they genuinely thought they were going to fail.

Not that it's not annoying for others, but putting yourself under lots of pressure is a pretty good way of motivating yourself to work as hard as you possibly can. Doesn't work for everyone, of course, and some people end up cracking.

 

[Super Dexta]

my course is all continuous assessment. i love my life. though i did have to get through the leaving cert and three years of college exams to get to this veritable pinnacle.. that thought curtails my gloating somewhat.


gloat.

 

[broken arm]

and by the way, if someone cant deal with the stress of exams then they're pretty much fucked if they want to do anything but work in a newsagents for the rest of their life
dealing with stress is all a part of it

how would you know? have you even left college yet?

 

[Alan Remorse]

sorry, what?
i worked for 2 years before coming back to do college
believe it or nay i've been out in the real world
my point was that pretty much every job involves stress at some time or another, and that school/college helps set you up for that
ie school years are probably the best time to start dealing with it

 

[billygannon]

Right... here's preparation for an exam...

For my leaving cert in History I did exactly the same essay for my specialist subject as my two brothers did before me... word for word. The teacher we all had for history had an essay that was a guaranteed A. He just told us to learn it off by heart and then write it down.

For the finals of my English degree, I answered two questions without ever reading the core texts that the questions were asking about.

And I can remember back to my Junior Cert art exam. I did a really bad portfolio, but did very well on the sketching etc. on the exam day.

Essentially, it's nothing to do what with what you've learned, or even a how hard-working you are as an individual. It's a reflection of how you dealt with that particular exam on that particular day.

It is a terrible way of gauging how compedent a person is - or finding what they're good at.
It's a big reason why you have mostly upper class, wealthy people going into professions such as doctors or lawyers.
Getting good results in a exam isn't that hard to do. And it's a lot easier if your Mammy or Daddy can pay for repeats and grinds etc.

And it doesn't prepare you for the working world

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

I've never been a newsagent but i'd say it could get pretty stressful.

 

[broken arm]

And it doesn't prepare you for the working world

the world would be bent if it was about preparing you for the work.

 

[Alan Remorse]

It's a big reason why you have mostly upper class, wealthy people going into professions such as doctors or lawyers.

that's some nice generalising there
my girlf's da worked for ESB for twenty years before becoming a barrister
they spent 4/5 years in complete poverty while he was studying
he got there by hard work alone

i know full well the system is full of holes but there has to be some sort of standard

granted, you did well for yourself even though you did fuck all, and hats off... but i know i couldnt have done it, nor could many other people... and the thing is you're an exception, and no matter what system we have there will always be exceptions.

edit: i should prob point out that i dont really endorse the system we have now, but i still think that if you work hard enough you can get around it either way

 

[classic seanc]

I've never been a newsagent but i'd say it could get pretty stressful.

I'd say so. Newsagents get way more shit than Fund Administrators, who have to have 400+ points in the leaving, and a minimum 2.1 degree. I know a lot of fund adminisistrators, and its a very very boring pointless job, but there's no stress really.

But any job can be stressful. But they don't hire you on your ability to handle stress, and they don't judge your stress threshold on you leaving cert results. Instead they ask you behavioural questions and shit "What would you do in this situation", etc

Remorse, the exams aren't supposed to be about how you deal with stress. They are supposed to be about how well you know and comprehend the subject. They end up being a stress test, a memory test, and a how-many-words-can-you-write-in-3-hours test because, well......because school is crap.

 

[Alan Remorse]

Remorse, the exams aren't supposed to be about how you deal with stress. They are supposed to be about how well you know and comprehend the subject. They end up being a stress test, a memory test, and a how-many-words-can-you-write-in-3-hours test because, well......because school is crap.

like i said, i dont endorse the system we have now
it pretty much sucks
but i really dont see a solution
i guess the only realistic way of doing it would be to seperate students into classes based on their skills... and i dont mean just A, B, and C classes... but schools just dont have the funds and/or teachers to do that.

i've worked in a newsagents, and yeah it was pretty stressful... but not as much as other jobs i've had.

 

[RSJ]

I had a friend once who was sitting a philosophy exam with weird questions. example:

Q. Is this a question?

His answer?: If this is an answer.

He got full marks for that paper.
Genius.

Pop Quiz: was this from
(a) Robert Newman
(b) David Baddiel
(c) Newman and Baddiel or
(d) The Mary Whitehouse Experience

Winner gets 600 points.

(ps sorry if that came out cockish, it's just been bugging me since i read it)
(pps i'm pretty sure it's d)