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Warning: tangentially related rant! > The typical approach, apparently, is to acquire a "dump," which is the bank of actual questions, and then repeatedly take

Warning: tangentially related rant! > The typical approach, apparently, is to acquire a "dump," which is the bank of actual questions, and then repeatedly take "practice exams" so that they've already seen (and memorized) all of the questions that they might encounter during the actual exam. So, blatant cheating. Children I know in UK high schools (12-18) are being "educated" solely in this manner that you describe as cheating. I don't think you're wrong. Basically, the "teacher" gives them past exam questions to do right from the very start of a 5 year course. They never get any reference books (nor online equivalents), they're not taught the subject matter, only taught how to answer the exam questions. It's diabolical but what passes for state education at the moment. To clarify, I have no problem with practising on past exam questions but you need to actually educate people before you ask them to answer questions on the material.

mtoddsmith 5y ago
That happens in the US as well. Its because they use the test scores as a measurement which weigh heavily in decision making regarding teacher retention and promotion. Some teachers hand out the answer sheet 15min prior to a test for the kids to review.
dhosek 5y ago
There's a common pattern where in low-performing schools, the kids test above average at the lower levels and then fall off a cliff. This is exactly why: young kids (K-2) are great at memorizing. But if the only skill they learn is memorizing, their ability to extend this as they progress fails. It was startling how much the kids I encountered when I taught math (to high school kids and to college kids who were essentially taking junior high/high school math classes) still relied on memorization and pattern matching. I did what I could to break them of the habits but there's only so much you can do, especially in the post-secondary context where you get 45 hours of instruction time (less time for exams) in the course of a semester.

mtoddsmith 5y ago

That happens in the US as well. Its because they use the test scores as a measurement which weigh heavily in decision making regarding teacher retention and promotion. Some teachers hand out the answer sheet 15min prior to a test for the kids to review.

dhosek 5y ago

There's a common pattern where in low-performing schools, the kids test above average at the lower levels and then fall off a cliff. This is exactly why: young kids (K-2) are great at memorizing. But if the only skill they learn is memorizing, their ability to extend this as they progress fails. It was startling how much the kids I encountered when I taught math (to high school kids and to college kids who were essentially taking junior high/high school math classes) still relied on memorization and pattern matching. I did what I could to break them of the habits but there's only so much you can do, especially in the post-secondary context where you get 45 hours of instruction time (less time for exams) in the course of a semester.