Another day, another video, another step towards death. The death of my college education that is. I’ve now passed 42 different subjects over 3 and a half years and i have just 5 remaining. Here’s how i got on in my latest set of exams at Christmas…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qJxi7fUs0
As you can see, i’ve done reasonably well. Lowest score of 52%, highest of 86% and an overall average of 63.2%. Initially (before i sat any exams), i said i’d be disappointed if i didn’t stay in and around the 70% mark. I also said i expected those exams to be the easiest i’d face. Even though they weren’t my best set of results, i still think they were easier than any other for me. There’s more writing and personal opinion / interpretation involved so that plays right in to my hands.
Having sat all exams then i said i reckon i got around about 60% overall. Today the results came out and i got 63.2% so yet again i have to pat myself on the back for being able to predict my grades so accurately.
I think there’s something wrong about that though, it’s too easy to look at marking schemes, look at course content and just learn the basics and stuff them in to short term memory. I’ll give you an example… In one of my ‘better’ subjects – enterprise telephony (which i got 70% in), i honestly can’t remember a thing about it other than SIP and H323 and even if you were to ask me now to define those two protocols, i’d struggle.
So there’s something very wrong there… we’re able to get results but dump everything afterwards which defeats the whole point of learning and college in the first place. Which is one of the reasons why i’m getting fed up with it. I think i’d be challenged more in real world situations or if left to my own devices.
Exams are getting easier to pass for me not because i’m getting smarter or learning more about different subjects, i’m just becoming so used to doing them that it almost doesn’t matter what the subject is, i just need a few past papers & solutions and we’re good to go. So in reality, i’m not learning anything and i have to question the sense in staying on any longer, even if it is recommended.