Alternate’s Reality
The World, according to AlternateLifeform .

On tests . . .

We live in an ‘infinite’ universe.

We say so, because despite the exploration of thinkers since the beginning of human history, there are still a lot of things which we as a species have not understood.

While examining this infinite universe, our thinkers have documented their knowledge into books - thousands of billions of books. In fact There is so much knowledge now, that for a single person, the extent of this knowledge itself can be termed as ‘infinite’. It would not be surprising to find an entire library written explaining in detail what takes up a _single line_ in a college text-book.

‘A’ and ‘B’, two students with very different approaches to education, are about to wet their feet in this ocean of information. Let’s follow their progress.

‘A’ is starting a course that he knows will be tested in a few months. ‘A few months’ is not going to be enough time for him to take interest and learn the entire syllabus that will be covered by the test. He would have to start from the syllabus, and by recursive study, end up learning . . . everything.

But being human, ‘A’ looks at the syllabus and finds three chapters in that list that he is passionate about. He feels that they will help in the line of work that he will choose in the future. So he picks up all the information he can find about these three chapters and dives wildly into this material.

‘B’, on the other hand is a good student, she understands that while the stated purpose of the course might be to learn a subject, the only measurable proof of her knowledge would be the result of the test that comes at the end of the course.

Rather than learning, she studies. She looks down the infinitely recursive universe of information covered by the syllabus and instead of following the information, picks out those sections that he guesses are most likely to be part of the question paper.

The question paper will cover only that portion of the syllabus that the examiner, in his ‘infinite’ wisdom, deems important. ‘B’, understands that the source of the examiners (infinite) wisdom is the bold text in her text-book. ‘B’ studies that section of the text, until she is sure that she will be able to recite those sections word for word by the date of the exam.

‘B’ tests well. She is able to answer 90% of the questions in the question paper correctly. Once the test is over, ‘B’ can conveniently forget whatever she has studied. It has served it’s purpose.

No surprises: ‘A’ answers only 3 questions. . . He might have learned a lot of good stuff, which would probably have done him a lot of good later, but that isn’t going to help his mark sheet, or his market value.

Facts:
Systems are based on rules,
Rules, by their very nature have loopholes
Loopholes should be exploited.

Education is a system.

‘Doing well’ at school / college doesnt not have much to do with how much you have learned, but looking at the larger picture, grades do matter.

Marks && grades are the only measure of ability that corporates have when choosing candidates. If you’re a young person from a middle-income family today, you will have to go through the system. There is no escaping this.

So regardless of what they might tell you, remember: You’re not in school to learn. Study hard, or you will regret it when you graduate.

Go to school -> Do well -> Go to good college -> Do well -> get the job you want -> Work hard -> die (’fun ‘);

Cheers!