So This is What It’s Like to be “Below Average”
Looks like I started a trend with the very last exam I took at York. After doing below average in a course (Molecular Biology 2) for the first time ever in my life in my last year at York, I have begun the year by getting below average marks on my first two exams, as you all already know. Looks like I might be continuing this trend.
I took my third exam this past Monday – Histology, Embryology, and Ethics. The embryology answer key came out a few days ago, and unsurprisingly, I scored below average again. The class average was 75 and I got a 67 – yeah I guess the exam questions were pretty “challenging”. I say that in quotes because the type of challenge wasn’t something I particularly appreciated. It was challenging because some of the questions required knowledge of pretty minute details. If you know me well, you’ll know that I love concepts and hate rote memorization of random facts. That being said, maybe I will end up doing above average overall across all three sections, though I highly doubt it.
Does this bother me? A little bit, but not really. It only bothers me in the sense that some people might only correlate my intelligence or capability as a future physician with my grades.
It’s weird that we think this though, and when I say this, I mean the pure correlation between marks and intelligence. I remember growing up, whoever got the highest marks in class was considered the “smartest” or whatever. Forget for a second that we haven’t even defined what intelligence is, or if you believe in multiple intelligences, what type of intelligence school tests – even if we neglect these important discussions, it’s pretty clear that it takes more than “intelligence” to do well in school. I know people who I think are much smarter than I who I’m sure I got way better grades than in school.
Yes intelligence affects your marks, but so does work ethic, test-taking skills, and ability to perform under pressure (there are probably more, but these are the four that to my mind the fastest). Among all four, my work ethic is my weakest aspect. Unless I am very interested in something, I can’t find the drive to put in the work ethic to learn it. And if you are weak in one of these areas, it’s going to hurt your marks big time. For me in particular, the problems with having a poor work ethic when studying things I don’t want to becomes amplified in medical school because so much of it is based on effort. Knowledge requires time to learn, and in medical school (at least here at UofT), knowledge is constantly being thrown at you. I can’t reason my way out of knowing the concentration of sperm cells in semen (my very first exam question required this knowledge, and of course, I never expected I would actually need to memorize that number – yes you could argue that anything taught is “fair game”, but you can easily write an unreasonable exam using all knowledge taught).
What saddens me is that it’s almost as if things still haven’t changed yet. One of the things that discouraged me about my undergraduate education was that there was so much emphasis on knowledge and next to nothing on developing thought processes, which as you know, I think is far more important in the grand scheme of things. We assume those thought processes will develop on their own, despite the fact that they are much more difficult to develop than simply accumulating knowledge, which simply requires reading a textbook (yes learning material from a textbook requires the ability to understand, but wait, that comes from thought process!).
I’m not saying knowledge isn’t important, because it is important. But knowledge becomes meaningless when we don’t know how to think about that knowledge, how to manipulate it to come to a solution to solve problems – and not just a solution, but to be able to develop the best solution. I feel like we grow up learning how to identify the best answer on a multiple choice test, but are never told that maybe the best answer isn’t listed on there.
Then again, you could just tell me to forget all this, suck it up, and memorize the damn textbook. I’ve got my last anatomy exam in less than two weeks, and there are loads to know (the head is pretty complicated as you can imagine…). But hey, I think I enjoy whining more.
Best of luck to everyone with their fall exams!
Related Posts:
- Clarification of My Last Post
- I Think I Failed but Maybe it was Exactly What I Needed
- End of the 1st Semester of Medical School
- I Passed!
- Crazy few weeks at school
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Comments
hey Josh,
I am actually thinking the same thing about Why don’t University teach us HOW TO LEARN and HOW TO STUDY rather than dumping information into our brain,forcing us to remember. In the end, we won’t remember a thing after the exam. So, what is the practical use of our knowledge learned in class ? Equals to nothing. But if you come to think about it, it makes sense why Universities can’t tell you how to think because everyone is different ! The profs can spend days generalizing how to think/solve certain problems but if you don’t read the textbook and understand it yourself. You will never understand why he did it and how he did it.
So, I totally agree with you that our education system is flawed, everything is so mark orientated. But regardless how stupid the system can be, learning is not for the sake of marks ! it is for you to understand, so forget about marks and below or above the average. Just Learn ! Put your self esteem down and just enjoy learning, Josh.
P.S I guess its not the fact that you are not working hard enough or anything. I think you are losing your motivation ~
Good luck(s) ~
I am an University of Toronto life science student. I totally feel your situation, Joshua. Although you haven’t attended U of T for your undergrad, I can tell you that the pillar of a life science undergrad education at U of T is blind memorization and regurgitation, with very little understanding of the significance of ideas and principles. Looks like U of T medical school differs very little.
But in response to the comment by Medhopeful above…
“Why don’t University teach us HOW TO LEARN and HOW TO STUDY rather than dumping information into our brain,forcing us to remember.”
Welcome to University, buddy. As the UBC motto says, “it’s yours.”
“But regardless how stupid the system can be, learning is not for the sake of marks ! it is for you to understand, so forget about marks and below or above the average. Just Learn !”
The education system needs marks as much as people need bread and water to survive. No marks, the whole system collapses, and charlatans start taking over. The system owns you, you don’t own the system. So if you ever want to succeed in the system, to put it in blunt terms, accept reality and suck it up.
hey josh,
as much as i do agree with you that the learning process is almost the most important part of having an education, because for anyone, not just for those in medicine, being able to learn a wide range of skills in a short time is crucial when working in a real job.
however, the sad reality is that the school system is a “factory” that have to stamp out graduates along with a transcript with numerical values (aka marks). and the quickest way to mass manufacture those marks is to use multiple choice questions. although good university program that teach thinking, group work etc do exist, but they are always selective and limited enrollment, which means the majority of the student still won’t get that education. so all this comes down to money and resource because to teach and grade someone on those skills, profs need to spend alot of time and energy, which is costly to the university.
Suggested reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_Taxonomy#Cognitive
My view is that knowledge is becoming easier and easier to obtain anywhere anytime (Blackberry with mobile Internet + Wikipedia is only the beginning), so this makes knowledge less and less valuable.
I am dreading my exam tomorrow for which I need to memorize numerous random details, but I am looking forward to my two open-book exams.
Oh yea…. and I also commented on the same thing about a year ago…
Hey Josh,
Neat blog. I can relate to the things you talk about. Bloom’s Taxonomy is something I was exposed to early too, and it definitely shaped my thinking.
Comment by Arthur on January 14, 2009 @ 1:26 am
It strikes me that you’re overly concerned about those numbers. The wonderful thing about most (all?) med schools in Canada is the pass/fail system. Marks don’t matter. Passing matters, yes, and I I think you should definitely examine your study methods so you always have a nice safety margin against failing an exam. If you pass but require remediation, so be it – histology may not be one of the more popular subjects around but it’s extremely important. The stuff that’s important that for whatever reason you don’t learn adequately now you can and will learn later.
I definitely found it challenging in my first year too, though looking back now, what I thought was minutiae ended up being quite important.
I think a good physician has both a good knowledge base and thought process, and the reality of medicine is you need a good foundation in basic sciences, anatomy, physiology in order to work on your clinical judgment and medical diagnosis.
Stick at it. You get better at learning as you go along. Just don’t lose the big picture. I remember a teacher saying, if you think medicine is too broad you are probably spending too much time memorizing stuff that doesn’t matter. If you think medicine is too simple, you probably aren’t putting enough work or going into the necessary depth needed for this level.