The education system I've been introduced to in my graduate medical college is different, to say the least, to what I've been used to.
Having affording parents who were willing to spend on their daughter, I have spent 5 years studying in the Cambridge system, which is in my opinion quite different from our own board. So the greatest challenge was probably accepting the fact that cramming is more important than understanding, because understanding alone won't get you marks, but cramming alone can. I still cannot, cannot, cannot, get over it. The few girls who I shared that with in the beginning couldn't understand what I meant by 'understanding' (honestly, they looked at me like I spoke a language they knew little), so I refrained from mentioning it ever again. My ever practical parents and uncle think I'm overreacting-- its a fact, no one else is complaining are they? Live with it. Plus I figure the only way to change this system is to do CSS later, so till then, I may as well keep my head down and cram, cram CRAM!
I've always preferred self study, which is a great help now, as I can build my own concepts as I go, and am not dependent on my teachers for the concepts part of study. My disbelief was not to be masked when I first realized we would be cramming biochemistry for the tests!! Never in my life has it crossed my mind that it was possible to cram chemistry! Yet here I am, doing it. For me, it is like massacring the dignity of chemistry as a science.
The thing is, that no matter how objective they make the paper, there is little problem solving or any kind of application of concepts. The main requirement is the description of concepts, which is best crammed word by word from the respective teacher's favorite book. So when one of my classmates was asked to tell us what she knew about optical isomers, her answer was excellent, yet when I asked her why the isomers behave as such, she was absolutely speechless...she could not understand why I would want to know that.
By talking to her, I realized that most of the girls who made it into medical college have never been introduced to the word concept before, and if any of the teachers mentions it now, it is only as an ideal, not expecting it to be implemented. Any understanding is an achievement on the students' part, not the undergraduate education system's.
Having affording parents who were willing to spend on their daughter, I have spent 5 years studying in the Cambridge system, which is in my opinion quite different from our own board. So the greatest challenge was probably accepting the fact that cramming is more important than understanding, because understanding alone won't get you marks, but cramming alone can. I still cannot, cannot, cannot, get over it. The few girls who I shared that with in the beginning couldn't understand what I meant by 'understanding' (honestly, they looked at me like I spoke a language they knew little), so I refrained from mentioning it ever again. My ever practical parents and uncle think I'm overreacting-- its a fact, no one else is complaining are they? Live with it. Plus I figure the only way to change this system is to do CSS later, so till then, I may as well keep my head down and cram, cram CRAM!
I've always preferred self study, which is a great help now, as I can build my own concepts as I go, and am not dependent on my teachers for the concepts part of study. My disbelief was not to be masked when I first realized we would be cramming biochemistry for the tests!! Never in my life has it crossed my mind that it was possible to cram chemistry! Yet here I am, doing it. For me, it is like massacring the dignity of chemistry as a science.
The thing is, that no matter how objective they make the paper, there is little problem solving or any kind of application of concepts. The main requirement is the description of concepts, which is best crammed word by word from the respective teacher's favorite book. So when one of my classmates was asked to tell us what she knew about optical isomers, her answer was excellent, yet when I asked her why the isomers behave as such, she was absolutely speechless...she could not understand why I would want to know that.
By talking to her, I realized that most of the girls who made it into medical college have never been introduced to the word concept before, and if any of the teachers mentions it now, it is only as an ideal, not expecting it to be implemented. Any understanding is an achievement on the students' part, not the undergraduate education system's.
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