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Ali Nabhani

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Do schools just test your memory?

As a middle school student I have rather unsatisfactory grades but the way I see it, I just have a bad memory.

Think about it, don't tests technically just assess what you remember and not what you actually know? I could remember that 2 + 2 = 4 but that doesn't mean I know why. I guess this doesn't count for those who actually understand the process.

Please share your opinions with me, I am here to learn.

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Topics: education
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    Robert Winner 50+

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    Nov 13 2012: Perhaps you have addressed something that you will recognize later in your education. At elementary and middle school we are concerned with rote memory as the basis of the learning process. here is defination of rote memory:

    Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition. The idea is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it. Some of the alternatives to rote learning include meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning.

    Nothing is faster than rote learning if a formula must be learned quickly for an imminent test and rote methods can be helpful for committing an understood fact to memory. However, students who learn with understanding are able to transfer their knowledge to tasks requiring problem-solving with greater success than those who learn only by rote. And that is called critical thinking ... you will get this later in your education.

    Critical thinking is hard to lock down but here are some explainations:

    "the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action

    "purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based

    So, Ali, here is my answer. If I was your teacher I would test you to see if you are real smart and just bored or maybe just do not get it. In education we crawl, walk, and run ... right now you are walking ... hang in there and you will soon be running. Smart people are lucky ... the harder they work the luckier they become ... LOL

    So get to work my friend.

    All the best. Bob.

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