Grades Vs Knowledge.

Question

Hi everybody,Here is a matter I'd like to have people's views on. In some places, getting a job after graduation is based on the Grades you've scored. The higher you CGPA(Cumulative Grade Point Average), the greater your chances of getting a job. The result is, in order to increase their chances of getting  good jobs, students value the grades over the knowledge. In some other places, they extract the knowledge from you, assess it, before giving you the job, whatever your grade, certifcates and others.How does it work in your place?

Yau · Accepted Answer

Adomi
Hi everybody,

Here is a matter I'd like to have people's views on. In some places, getting a job after graduation is based on the Grades you've scored. The higher you CGPA(Cumulative Grade Point Average), the greater your chances of getting a job. The result is, in order to increase their chances of getting good jobs, students value the grades over the knowledge. In some other places, they extract the knowledge from you, assess it, before giving you the job, whatever your grade, certifcates and others.

How does it work in your place?

Here in Hong Kong, exams and grades are number 1 issue to all students and parents. In middle class families, parents spend USD4000 to buy a language kit for the unborn embryo. Some language courses are open for a child at its 3 months. Parents queue a long time for getting application forms from famous kindergardens, and it's no surprise that some of them enthusiastically discuss the university their childs will enroll in the very far future--- They just don't agree it's very far.

As students are generally allocated to schools in the district they live, some parents paid huge money to buy only a mail box in famous school districts and ILLEGAL claim that they live there. Though after some parents were prosecuted by the police, it rarely happened today, some rich parents, without tears and hesitation, buy an apartment for USD600,000 in these districts so that their childs can go to famous schools.

It's not enough. Elder child are required to study piano, flute, ballet, french and anything that can help childs get more 'scores' in the interview conducted by famous schools. During this session, teachers will ask the 5-year-old kid about occupations of parents and solve some logical paradox. It won't sweat off parents because there're some courses DEDICATED to helping students score higher marks in the interview.

It's an end of the very beginning, more nightmares come ahead. At age 11, students will compete for the limited seats of English secondary schools (Chinese schools are generally less favoured and their grades are lower). One 11-year-old schoolgirl burst in tears in front of camera when she found out she was allocated to Chinese School. "The road ...is ....so difficult for me..." She cried.

At age 16, around 120,000 students will seat for the public exams Hong Kong Ceritificate Exams of Education (HKCEE). Their future and their whole life will be determined by the grades. If you loss, then you may be forced to the labor market, and earn the sweat-and-tear money. On the contrast, every year, about 10 students will take straight As (the max. As students can get is 10As) will be honoured by media and the society. They're hero! They will be asked how they see our political leaders and books they read. They'll get a free transportation pass, free travel package and more wonderful, paid by some schools for the right to use their certificate --- in the advertising.

As you may expect, there's huge demand, so there's huge supply of private and expensive Exam Schools. These 'Exam Teacher' (dubbed King of Remdial Course) will tell you which topics will be possibly on your exam paper, raise your skills at getting higher marks in limited time, and if you don't know the answers for multiple-choice questions, they say "just fill 'B'!" --- because by their survey, B is most common answers, etc. No wonder why some Kings can earn USD1million in a year.

At age 18, students will take another competitive public exam, Advanced Level (AL) Exams. It determines if students can finally get into university and subject they desire. Again, we have AL heros, and expensive private courses for enhancing exam skills, blah blah blah.

Crazy.... I read it from your mind. ;P

Adomi · Answer

Yau Crazy.... I read it from your mind. ;P

To be totally true, Yau, I thought: "Amazing! That's why Chinese have so many talents". To sum you up, the emphasis is put on the grade. The major difference I've noticed, is that, a follow up is maintained, throughout the child's life. "Children are conditionned" would be someone's comment, but I really think it's amazing, as long as the knowledge is also the concern of the recruiters. However we should all be given the opportunity to make our own choices.

Julielai · Answer

Hi Yau,

My elder sibling got straight A's in A-level. But he didn't attend tutorial schools. (In fact, neither of us did. The tutorial school fad started after my time. )

Yes, parents do like to prep us, don't they? Take us for instance, we did get to attend a private elementary school. But that came out of our "pocket money", well, sort of. We didn't have new toys and stuff like other kids -- we watched what we spent so we could pay for our private school tuition -- $250 a month, which was a whopping sum for a blue collar worker. I didn't get to take piano lessons either -- that was something I had wished for as a child.

Though the case in HK is a bit extreme, financial investment in a child's education is a good thing. You're at least, through the investment, telling the child how important schooling is. I've come across parents who spend the money instead on maintaining a lifestyle that is beyond their means, and, as a result, fail to teach their children the importance of putting off instant gratification for the nobler cause of educating yourself.

Adomi · Answer

Hi Julielai,
If you were asked, what was the influence of the life style, you had when you were a child, on your knowledge and your work, what would you say?
By the way, It's never too late, you can still take piano lessons, at least to make your wish come true

Julielai · Answer

If you were asked, what was the influence of the life style, you had when you were a child, on your knowledge and your work, what would you say?

I learned one thing: education comes first.

I have so many things I want to learn now piano lessons are no longer on my top five...

Anonymous · Answer

Don't you think it is kind of crazy planing your child's life for them before they even step foot into the world. I mean how do you know what they are going to like or enjoy, or is that beside the point as long as they have good grades and participate in this and that then they will have a good life and be happy right? I mean think about it, no one is going to be happy with a life forced on them choices are good. I totally think that education is good however, education is not doing whatever it takes to pass some test. We have the same thing here in America, it is called the SAT stands for Scholastic Aptitude Test basically it is a standard test that all juniors or seniors in Highschool have to take all accross the nation. There is a big contraversy over it, does it really show our true strengths and show what we really know? But mostly for teenagers, it just puts on more stress, SAT is a noun everyone knows what you are talking about when you say it. I feel the biggest problem, which you mentioned happens where you live, is that people study for it, they take classes or get private tutors. The problem with that is it raises the standard for the rest of us. If what the test is for, for us to see where we stand with others our age (however, i feel it is much more than that) how can it do that if people are studing just for that test and learning things none of us should know and then they are able to get it right on the test and make us look bad.

I don't know i am sorry, i am a little all over the place but it seems we have many of the same issues here.

Julielai · Answer

AnonymousI feel the biggest problem, which you mentioned happens where you live, is that people study for it, they take classes or get private tutors. The problem with that is it raises the standard for the rest of us. If what the test is for, for us to see where we stand with others our age (however, i feel it is much more than that) how can it do that if people are studing just for that test and learning things none of us should know and then they are able to get it right on the test and make us look bad.

I don't know, anon., I did better in SAT than many who took prep courses. Not that my SAT score was all that great either. I also did okay in TOEFL without any prep. It all comes down to the student, I think.

Grades Vs Knowledge.

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