When Do School Grades Stop Being Important?
It is sometimes curious to find employers dishing out job offers with the precondition that the prospect employee achieve a certain level of grades upon graduation. Head-scratching how that would work, considering that under the British system with its all-or-nothing 100% final exam system, the final results will not be available until the November after graduation, when the new employee is already, perhaps, been working full-time for quarter of a year. So what if the expected level of grades was not achieved? Does that mean the employee is then fired, not taking into account the good work of last 3 months?
While introducing a certain element of confusion into how schools, students, and employers may potentially interact in a, eh, not particularly grade-focused academic environment dedicated to pumping out large numbers of international graduates, the ambiguity of it all more importantly draws into question what diligence really means in this context. Sure, those ready for their future PhD will need to have a track of solid evidence demonstrating consistent hard work over time, but what about the others, destined for the workplace that evaluate on on-site performance rather than a history of academic achievements?
Such question is especially prominent in the mind of someone who just casually finished up, in a mere week and a half, his Master's dissertation, a piece of supposedly flawlessly crafted independent research that symbolizes the fruition of a year worth of increased knowledge and research/writing skills. Evidently, the quality of 10000 words pumped out at a 1000 per day is obviously not amazing (and definitely far from flawless) but the previously mentioned doubts about the very meaning of diligence in this environment calls into question whether more effort is actually needed.
Re-reading the requirements of the dissertation only reinforces such doubts. Does the paper have a concrete question to be answered and makes an argument to answer it? Check. Does it incorporate a wide array of primary/secondary source evidence to support the argument? Check. Does it follow all the predefined formats and requirements for presentation? Check. It looks like all that's left for a pass is to print out the copies and hand them in...So simple and straightforward to the point that one has to ask oneself, "really, that's it?!" with at least a tinge of guilt.
But, to graduate, to get that piece of paper called the "diploma" mailed to my home address a few months later, yep, that really is it. Just as confident as one would be of a dissertation written in a week and a half to not get the most amazing feedback, the highest marks, or the most sought-after accolades, one should be equally confident that no reader in the right mind should fail the same dissertation. Theories are used a plenty along with a long list of notable authors referred within its seemingly endless content. Opinions, analysis, and arguments are all there....
Plenty of people would say this is the wrong attitude, that this is why a year full-time work worth of tuition fee and insane living expenses in London are wasted. But if this is the wrong attitude, then do the legions of students holing themselves up in the library 24/7, skipping sleep by binge-drinking coffee/Red Bull/Monster during the entire revision period have the "right attitude"? Re-reading notes and articles in a short period of time, if anything, defeats that very purpose of postgraduate learning, which should be about interest rather than economic necessity (as in undergrad).
But really, is this the "academically correct/necessary" sort of work-life balance a week before final exams? Not to mention some of these people are studying social sciences, which technically have no wrong answers? Working endlessly as if not doing so means the end of the world just does not make any sense, considering that, for most people sitting there tirelessly in the same position, they will have years after graduation in corporate cubicles to do exactly that. At least then they have their income at stake, unlike the rather meaningless words on their diplomas.
Such sights reminds me of Western media that constantly blast Asian education system as backward due to exclusive focus on "rote learning." They seem to overlook that exactly the same thing is happening right in the heart of the most renowned Western educational institutions. Perhaps it is really time for education, both in the East and West to set beyond meticulous exam-studying and dissertation-writing, and allow educators to guide their students to freely explore what they wish to know without the socio-economic pressures of some vaguely defined concept of grades....
While introducing a certain element of confusion into how schools, students, and employers may potentially interact in a, eh, not particularly grade-focused academic environment dedicated to pumping out large numbers of international graduates, the ambiguity of it all more importantly draws into question what diligence really means in this context. Sure, those ready for their future PhD will need to have a track of solid evidence demonstrating consistent hard work over time, but what about the others, destined for the workplace that evaluate on on-site performance rather than a history of academic achievements?
Such question is especially prominent in the mind of someone who just casually finished up, in a mere week and a half, his Master's dissertation, a piece of supposedly flawlessly crafted independent research that symbolizes the fruition of a year worth of increased knowledge and research/writing skills. Evidently, the quality of 10000 words pumped out at a 1000 per day is obviously not amazing (and definitely far from flawless) but the previously mentioned doubts about the very meaning of diligence in this environment calls into question whether more effort is actually needed.
Re-reading the requirements of the dissertation only reinforces such doubts. Does the paper have a concrete question to be answered and makes an argument to answer it? Check. Does it incorporate a wide array of primary/secondary source evidence to support the argument? Check. Does it follow all the predefined formats and requirements for presentation? Check. It looks like all that's left for a pass is to print out the copies and hand them in...So simple and straightforward to the point that one has to ask oneself, "really, that's it?!" with at least a tinge of guilt.
But, to graduate, to get that piece of paper called the "diploma" mailed to my home address a few months later, yep, that really is it. Just as confident as one would be of a dissertation written in a week and a half to not get the most amazing feedback, the highest marks, or the most sought-after accolades, one should be equally confident that no reader in the right mind should fail the same dissertation. Theories are used a plenty along with a long list of notable authors referred within its seemingly endless content. Opinions, analysis, and arguments are all there....
Plenty of people would say this is the wrong attitude, that this is why a year full-time work worth of tuition fee and insane living expenses in London are wasted. But if this is the wrong attitude, then do the legions of students holing themselves up in the library 24/7, skipping sleep by binge-drinking coffee/Red Bull/Monster during the entire revision period have the "right attitude"? Re-reading notes and articles in a short period of time, if anything, defeats that very purpose of postgraduate learning, which should be about interest rather than economic necessity (as in undergrad).
But really, is this the "academically correct/necessary" sort of work-life balance a week before final exams? Not to mention some of these people are studying social sciences, which technically have no wrong answers? Working endlessly as if not doing so means the end of the world just does not make any sense, considering that, for most people sitting there tirelessly in the same position, they will have years after graduation in corporate cubicles to do exactly that. At least then they have their income at stake, unlike the rather meaningless words on their diplomas.
Such sights reminds me of Western media that constantly blast Asian education system as backward due to exclusive focus on "rote learning." They seem to overlook that exactly the same thing is happening right in the heart of the most renowned Western educational institutions. Perhaps it is really time for education, both in the East and West to set beyond meticulous exam-studying and dissertation-writing, and allow educators to guide their students to freely explore what they wish to know without the socio-economic pressures of some vaguely defined concept of grades....
Well the problems described above in tertiary education in the UK are symptomatic of a country that well and truly has not moved beyond Victorian attitudes about the superiority of its institutions. Despite year upon year of evidence and reports pointing out the inadequacy of the British primary and secondary education systems, the tendency is to "reform" them in such a way as to make them worse! No written constitution, a class system that is evident from one's dress and accent, an economy dedicated to producing a "chimera" of prosperity that rewards the few, whether deserving or not and I could go and on. The current government will only make things worse determined as they are to implement a program based on Victorian ideals about the "deserving few" and the undeserving masses.
ReplyDeleteyet we are here, all part of this Victorian system, haha
ReplyDeleteBut the reality on the ground makes me wonder if we really are the "deserving few" that we are supposed to be (I mean, we are supposed to be, right, as students of LSE?)