5 ms·

It is pretty awful how focused education--generally speaking--is on memorization.

WalterBright 8y ago
Sadly, you must have gone through a poor program. I don't know how things are generally done, but at Caltech there was very little memorization - exams were open book, open note. The emphasis was on derivation, not formula plugging. Engineering formulae have assumptions built in and if one doesn't know that, one is apt to misapply them to cubical cows.
- wallace_f 8y ago
  I'm sure you are aware that your university program in engineering from Caltech is not necessarily broadly representative of all education in the US? I can remember history, science and math tests from elementary through high school that were nearly 100% memorization. Even the math tests.
  - analog31 8y ago
    I remember that different people experienced those tests differently. It was possible to get through those tests by memorizing formulas, but also possible to get through by understanding principles and getting quick at what amounted to lightweight derivations. For instance I never memorized the cosine of pi, or anything like that, and still haven't. Often memorization occurred by accident, in the process of working through the problems. In the higher level math classes, the formulas vanished and it was all derivations / proofs. The problem with physics class was that the derivations were impossible without calculus, so the non-calculus students were actually handicapped and it was kind of an anomalous situation.
    - WalterBright 8y ago
      I never memorized the 8086 opcode encodings, either, but eventually I just knew most of them :-)
  - extra88 8y ago
    Sure, and your school experience is also not necessarily broadly representative of all education in the US. The US education system is generally known for having deemphasized rote memorization compared to the past and compared to other countries today, Asian countries mostly.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    I became aware of that after college, and think it is unfortunate. I couldn't recommend professors and programs that teach formula plugging rather than understanding.

Sadly, you must have gone through a poor program. I don't know how things are generally done, but at Caltech there was very little memorization - exams were open book, open note. The emphasis was on derivation, not formula plugging. Engineering formulae have assumptions built in and if one doesn't know that, one is apt to misapply them to cubical cows.

wallace_f 8y ago
I'm sure you are aware that your university program in engineering from Caltech is not necessarily broadly representative of all education in the US? I can remember history, science and math tests from elementary through high school that were nearly 100% memorization. Even the math tests.
- analog31 8y ago
  I remember that different people experienced those tests differently. It was possible to get through those tests by memorizing formulas, but also possible to get through by understanding principles and getting quick at what amounted to lightweight derivations. For instance I never memorized the cosine of pi, or anything like that, and still haven't. Often memorization occurred by accident, in the process of working through the problems. In the higher level math classes, the formulas vanished and it was all derivations / proofs. The problem with physics class was that the derivations were impossible without calculus, so the non-calculus students were actually handicapped and it was kind of an anomalous situation.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    I never memorized the 8086 opcode encodings, either, but eventually I just knew most of them :-)
- extra88 8y ago
  Sure, and your school experience is also not necessarily broadly representative of all education in the US. The US education system is generally known for having deemphasized rote memorization compared to the past and compared to other countries today, Asian countries mostly.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  I became aware of that after college, and think it is unfortunate. I couldn't recommend professors and programs that teach formula plugging rather than understanding.