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The examiners can definitely control how tests are made, and they can make it more difficult for rote learners to get a good mark hence making them go mediocre. In Economics we memorise stats and concepts, then the question is given and we must construct logical arguments. That is how it is...

The point still stands however, that most 'types' of rote learning at HSC level is bad for the purpose of education, and the syllabus/exam style should change to accommodate less rote learners.

Rote learning statistics and facts is trivial, there is nothing there to understand, its just a figure. There is a difference between memorising stats to memorising process.

But as said previously there is a way around this through the questions that can be asked by the board of studies.

Proper essays need more time to be given, if you want a deep analysis and constructive arguments following an original thesis than you need more than 40 minutes. Otherwise they become a list of points.

Yes English is starting to change as they are placing less emphasis on techniques and trying to combat the culture of rote learning, which is good, however the exam format still needs to change for them to achieve anything. 3 essays in 2 hours is too much. A 3 hour exam would be much better, it...

You misunderstand the point of this thread, I never denied that rote learning can get you good marks for most subjects. The fact that this is true is WHY it needs to change. If students find out that rote learning will no longer help them, then they switch to understanding which is better for...

You are not arguing anything here, basically that rote learning is not dangerous even though I have given many rebuttals against that statement. Rote learning is a cancer to education because it entirely defeats the purpose of education itself. And that is to learn. Rote learning is not...

You are confusing rote learning with understanding here. You give me a theory and I understand it, I try to understand why this theory works, and the questions should be about the theory. Sure in the HSC there are some good legit questions, but a lot of them are just horrible. Doing past papers...

Very good points +1

Don't be so stubborn in rote learning, give understanding a try, you will love it.

You aren't alone in thinking that. I believe it as well to an extent. This is the reason why Rote learning is nigh on impossible for MX2, you can rote learn for every other objective based subject and do reasonable. If you try and rote learn MX2 you will die.

These subjects are very broad, I am sure that HSC could take out bits from the subject that actually make sense and teach some of it while in Uni they go into really advanced stuff. I mean, its not like the extra stuff I would like to see in Physics is the stuff of uni. Its just calculus...

no problem

Maybe it will never happen, but I would rather see an education system where rote learning only achieves the mediocre (as someone said in this thread previously). Its only those willing to actually learn the content and actually apply their knowledge that will succeed. Rote learning is a...

It is a culture among the harder working students to pick these standard subjects, so when scaling is calculated, we get higher scaling for these subjects. I'll put it frank though, there is a culture among students wanting to do well, to pick subjects like chemistry/physics and so on and when...

Ceteris Paribus. The scaling system depends on the quality of the cohort. If everyone doing Extension 2 maths did bad in other subjects then it will scale low. But the thing is, there tends to be a correlation between Extension 2 and good students, hence scaling well. People doing all...

I want to establish a purpose for education, to encourage mind evolution and critical thinking ability. What is the purpose of education if we just rote learn? Nothing. There is no skill involved in rote learning at all either, so its not like we are perfecting a skill that we could use you in...

Very good post +1

If social science stuff HAS to be in there, then just leave it to Senior Science to explore. Why should Chemistry and Physics students suffer through the monotone and horribleness in the curriculum? Whether it is important or not doesn't matter. When I pick Chemistry, I want to study Chemistry...