Lecturers always complain about how students should work hard to know their stuff, instead of working hard to pass the exams.
I understand what they're trying to do.
Year after year they see the quality of the students they got and educated,
Year after year they complain about the changes they never got to see.
All the while students are struggling to stay afloat, trying not to fail.
I don't know about students in other universities,
I don't know about how my other coursemates&university-mates feel either.
I know how I feel.
.
Every semester I started off with hope,
One hope, which is to understand what I study and sit through my exams knowing what to answer for every questions.
Yet, I found myself going through past year papers and even attempted to "scope" questions that might come out, and memorize answers my seniors wrote in those papers.
What am I doing?
It's not like I don't know what I'm studying,
It's not that I don't know what to read up and revise for my papers.
.
Creativity, I have.
Attention in class, I've given.
Understanding of materials, I have.
Confidence in knowing what I was taught in the lectures, I have.
But confidence in scoring exam papers with the knowledge I have?
I don't think I have that.
.
You see,
As a student, there's no problem for me to learn and understand my courses.
Studying and remembering these materials in my head aren't a problem for me as well.
My problem, nevertheless, is the fear that my method in solving questions doesn't match the method used in the examiner's answer sheet.
My problem, is the doubt I have towards the words I write in my answer booklet.
Facts I have no problem, keywords, I have.
I worry about the "what if"s...
What if I didn't write down the keyword the examiner has in her/his answer scheme.
What if my method wasn't listed in the answer sheet.
.
Then I realized,
All those lectures I've attended taught me how to be a chemist,
But I will never make it as a chemist if I don't memorize answers given by the lecturers for selected questions that might be from a past year paper a decade ago, or a repeated question from the year before this year.
.
It made me feel that all that complaints I've been hearing in lectures,
about how dull and uncreative students are these days,
They aren't true.
We ARE innovative, we ARE human, we HAVE a mind of our own.
We just choose not to use it in exams, because that's the smarter way to succeed.
Who would be stupid enough to think of new solutions while answering papers that you already have the answers to?
Who has the cheek to "inspire" the examiners with her/his new ways to solve a problem, when an answer sheet has already been prepared for her/him?
Why would we "go online and read up new ways" to do this...do that...etc..
When you know for sure that answer sheets are ageless, and most probably not up to date with the "newest" technology, which would make those "extra" points you give useless to earn an extra mark or two to save your graduation.
.
They all talk big,
They all made us look small and lazy.
But they haven't got a chance to look forward and try to see us as real scientists in the real world.
Heck, I don't even think they know my name and what kind of a person I am.
When I graduate and got a job and make a fortune, will I go back and brag about myself to them?
No.
Instead I'd tell myself,"I thought so. I knew it." And laugh at all those times I used to believe their belittling words.
.
I ain't gonna listen to those complaints ever again.
Oh wait, I only have one more semester to go.
Well that makes my life easier then!
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