oh dear

[mollykins]

My friend (who got pretty average grades at GCSE) has just told me how much revision he's done for his january exams . . .

''wow! 4 business, i started when we came back from the holidays...
i did spanish all through the holidays though :/
now ive done my business, im starting my ICT 4 next friday
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike''

and this was my reply;

'' From my maths today, I can tell you that, that won't be enough, and it may be too late. I start revising the night after a lesson, by going over things as I put them in my folder, aswell as doing all the homework, then doing exrtra revision of things we did in september and october to refresh my memory, and I still couldn't answer all the questions! 8 minutes ago ·''

He hasn't replied yet. What do you think his chances of passing are? He said he does about 4 hours per subject per week (including homework, no CW yet) during term time.

[mollykins]

He did loads of revision last summer and only got Cs and Bs now he's done hardly any and expecting to d, I don't want him to be dissapointed.

[factor-fiction]

If he is disappointed I'm sure he'll learn from his mistake.

[Prudie]

But it could be that he revises 24/7 for 6 months and he still only gets Cs & Bs. Isn't that the point of the grading system?

[NOX]

Some people could pass exams standing on their head with virtually no revision and some people can revise 'til they are purple and still not pass. Leave him be to do whatever he thinks fit and he'll be fine because either he'll pass or he won't and in any event the sky won't fall.

[ummmm]

I don't think I revised for any exams....I had a quick glance at St Marks Gospel. That's only because I realised that I hadn't listen to a word of it for the previous two years. Got a B..

[Buenchico]

Here's how much revision I've done in my life:

O-levels (= GCSE grades A to C), all 10 of them: Absolutely none.

A-levels, 3 of them: Not one minute

Teaching Certificate:
Education Theory: None
Mathematics: None
Physics: 40 minutes!!!

Degree: None whatsoever

Fell Walking Leader's Certificate: None

First Aid Qualifications (to instructor level): None

Driving test: None

Football referee's exam: Absolutely none.

British Chess Federation Regional Coach's Award: None

Journalism qualification: Not a sausage

When I was teaching I'd always feel like a fraud when I urged most of my pupils to revise, but at least I was honest with the most able students. I simply told them that revision is largely a waste of time. If you didn't fully understand something first time around there's not much chance that it will make sense later on!

Chris

(PS: Most people I know who've obtained First Class Honours degrees attended well under half of their lectures and hardly ever opened a book during their university days!)

[mike11111]

I agree that no amount of revision will help you to pass exams at degree level unless you have the intellectual capacity, but it is often useful to refresh the databank. Armed with that you can go into an exam room and weave a rich tapestry around the most trivial of data (I'm talking Arts, rather than Sciences here). One of the most boring aspects of being a teacher, especially at university level, is marking. Page after page of students regurgitating what they believe the lecturer wants to hear. Throw in a statement which runs counter to received wisdom, justify it with some specious sophistry, and his eyes will light up. You will get extra marks for sheer nerve, if nothing else. A story is told of the History department at my university (which awarded only one first class degree over a period of twenty years) where a lecturer awarded a very mediocre answer with a grade A. When asked to justify his marking at a moderators' meeting he replied, "He used a semi-colon, and correctly, too!"

[Buenchico]

I've got to agree that 'sheer nerve' can go a long way when it comes to impressing tutors who are bored with reading the same old stuff. In my college days I found that throwing a few quotes from Mao Tse Tung into essays on educational philosophy seemed to be a near-guarantee of an 'A' grade ;-)

[mike11111]

Educational theory is a different ball game. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

[mike11111]

I remember being set an assignment:

"You are about to enter your first teaching practice. What resources do you consider necessary to assist your pupils in maximising their learning potential?"

I replied, "The cane." I had to make a resubmission.

[MarkRae]

Two (probably apocryphal) stories spring to mind.

Apparently, many years ago at one of the Oxbridge colleges, students were sitting down to their final exam in philosophy and were presented with the question "Is this a question?", to which one student replied "Yes, if this is an answer" and walked out.

Same exam, different year, the question was "What is courage?", to which one student replied "This!" and also walked out.

I also remember seeing a television programme about different levels of examination paper marking among different markers. One year, they asked a sample of markers to re-mark the papers they'd marked the previous year, and only one of them recorded exactly the same grades for exactly the same candidates. Apparently, all he did was measure the length of the answer papers with a ruler...

[mike11111]

I remember the philosophy one. As far as I remember it ran:
Q7. Is question 7 a valid question? to which the reply was:
"Only inasmuch as this is a valid answer".

I know it's at a lower level, but I still like this one (hope the link works)
http://blog.jimmyr.com/pics/162_1.jpg

[MarkRae]

Download Mp3s free???

[mike11111]

It works for me. Perhaps this link may clarify things (top one).
http://blog.jimmyr.co...m_Answers_13_2008.php

[Sqad]

Revision is ESSENTIAL.

It is not whether one doe it but HOW one does it......and that is the key to revision.

Children/students are not taught how to revise and this, in my opinion is a flaw in our educational system (that is if you can understand our educational system ;-))

[mike11111]

i have to agree with Sqad. There was nothing more frustrating than being set a question in June on a topic studied the previous September with which one could easily cope at the time, but was subsequently relegated to the subconscious.

[mollykins]

That's very well buen but we're talking about someone who did loads of revision for gcse and got Cs and Bs.

[boxtops]

Molly, seeing your other exam post, I would stop worrying about your friend and concentrate on your remaining exam for yourself. Each of you an only do as well as you can, everyone retains information differently.