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Study time - Quantity vs Quality?

 
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LarssonCrew



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 1308

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:58 am    Post subject: Study time - Quantity vs Quality? Reply with quote

Anyone else find this?

When I was studying [quite hard ;)] for my law exams back in the day, I would regularly take a few hours every day to wind down, play some Xbox, go out clubbing, go to dinner with friends, watch TV etc, and I found it helped me study better.

My student's are obsessed with getting enough time in. They have exams in January. I sometimes go for lunch or dinner with groups of my older students [i.e. the 3-4th year college students who were my students last year], but recently every time we've been planning something, they've said 'ah, I can't, I'm studying for my exams.' But their exams are in January. What it essentially means is they realistically think that if they do not spend that one extra hour we would spend at dinner or lunch, that could affect their grade.

Anyone else seen this? Putting all socializing on hold or having any fun to pack in 8-9 hours a day studying for an exam. They don't realise that in 3 months, having a few days off will make zero difference.

Also, if I were to have an exam and spent the entire day studying for 3 months, I'm sure I could pass, but many of these student's cannot. Is there studying so awful?

I will be honest, I studied law but partied for 10 months of the year. In the final 2 months I would study my own books, make my own notes and go over them, and still only spend 4-5 hours a day, and got a good result, but some student's wake up at 7am to begin studying.

Are they REALLY studying all that time? Or is it , study for an hour, get distracted by something Chinese, obsess about eating dinner at precisely 5pm, then studying more etc?

I just cannot fathom two points:

1)That they believe doing something not studying related for a few hours once will, in the long term, realistically affect their study
2)Want to know how you can fail an exam you studied for for 6 months, 9 hours a day.

Hell, I'm sure if I played table tennis 9 hours a day for 6 months I could be pretty damn good...
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choudoufu



Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:03 am    Post subject: Re: Study time - Quantity vs Quality? Reply with quote

LarssonCrew wrote:
I just cannot fathom two points:

1)That they believe doing something not studying related for a few hours once will, in the long term, realistically affect their study
2)Want to know how you can fail an exam you studied for for 6 months, 9 hours a day.


1. they don't know any better. they study 'cause they're told to, because
that's what ever'one else does, 'cause it's traditional. that's the way it's
always been done. the fact that it's not effective is irrelevant.
(not effective for learning, if you agree memorization is not learning)

2. they can fail YOUR exam. they won't fail their chinese exams. your
exam will involve testing their skills and abilities. a chinese exam simply
measures their capacity for memorizing useless facts and figures.


LarssonCrew wrote:
Hell, I'm sure if I played table tennis 9 hours a day for 6 months I could be pretty damn good...


this is true, but you would be practicing playing table tennis. your
students on the other hand would be reading about table tennis or
watching a movie about table tennis, or crikey, even singing songs
about table tennis.
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ecubyrd



Joined: 09 May 2009
Posts: 172

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:07 am    Post subject: Re: Study time - Quantity vs Quality? Reply with quote

choudoufu wrote:
LarssonCrew wrote:
I just cannot fathom two points:

1)That they believe doing something not studying related for a few hours once will, in the long term, realistically affect their study
2)Want to know how you can fail an exam you studied for for 6 months, 9 hours a day.


1. they don't know any better. they study 'cause they're told to, because
that's what ever'one else does, 'cause it's traditional. that's the way it's
always been done. the fact that it's not effective is irrelevant.
(not effective for learning, if you agree memorization is not learning)

2. they can fail YOUR exam. they won't fail their chinese exams. your
exam will involve testing their skills and abilities. a chinese exam simply
measures their capacity for memorizing useless facts and figures.


This ^. I don't teach Chinese students, but I taught those in the little place to the east there for many years, and teach them here as well. It sounds pretty much the same.
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Ariadne



Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 960

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's not just studying for exams. From the time these kids are in grade school their days are packed full of classes, study hall, and of course, extra classes. They often have to be at school on weekends too. Many children go away to boarding school for middle school and high school. Every minute is regulated, supervised. I don't think that kids in China are smarter or better educated than kids in the US, where school hours are less than half of what they are in China. What is the benefit of this system? Even after all those hours of 'education' most university students have never written a research paper or created anything.

I know China has a heck of a lot of people to educate, but dang, there has to be a better way!


.
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wonderingjoesmith



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 910
Location: Guangzhou

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 1:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ariadne wrote:
From the time these kids are in grade school their days are packed full of classes, study hall, and of course, extra classes. They often have to be at school on weekends too..................................Every minute is regulated, supervised.
This may be the reason why most of them have such uniformed views on just about everything.
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LarssonCrew



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 1308

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 3:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wonderingjoesmith, that is absolutely right.

My Chinese friend told me he once did an experiment.

He asked 10 10 year olds to draw 5 different animals, I think they were monkey, fish, dog, cat, pig.

He said without talking to each other, they practically drew IDENTICAL pictures, because their teacher in their primary school said 'this is how a fish is drawn etc.'

I know for pig, most people will have ideas, but I always draw my pig with a small head and a huge body to joke their fat. For cat, I draw some whiskers meeting at the middle of the face joined with a vertical line, for monkey, I'd draw a human type picture, for fish I'd draw close to the christian one on the back of cars.

Anyways, the point is, and maybe it's age related, we could all draw those five and get five completely different ideas.
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wonderingjoesmith



Joined: 19 Aug 2012
Posts: 910
Location: Guangzhou

PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 4:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your example is an excellent demonstration of what I've meant. At a later stage, it goes on with identical views on topics which is quite concerning. With such trend, it may be pretty tough to prove plagiarism too.
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