A colleague was complaining with a broken heart from the difficulty of the Thanaweya Amma exams (general Baccalaureate or High School Degree examination – the official one in Egypt). I looked at her with a big surprise and the following conversation took place:
- What was the problem?
- The exam was very difficult!!!
- Ok, and what’s wrong with that?
- ……(perplexed shocked silence)….. Everything is wrong! Exams are not supposed to be this difficult! They are supposed to be suitable for the average student!
- But if they’re suitable for the average student, then the distinguished students won’t have a chance to excel!
- If they’re made to distinguish special students then the average student will get a bad grade!
- So?
- ….(even longer and more shocked silence) ….. So they will not get into a good university!
- But that’s not possible! They will still get into a good university but with a lower grade.
- That’s not true! Last year the good universities required over 98% grade for entrance. If the exams are hard, my child won’t get near this grade and won’t get into a suitable university.
- That’s last year … if the exams are difficult then everyone will get lower grades and then the universities will accept lower scores.
- But this will never happen! Students who didn’t study will just cheat from their neighbors and still get good scores, while my child will get a poor score.
- If the exams are difficult then even those who cheat will not find anyone with correct answers to cheat from … so on the contrary your child has a better chance if they worked harder now.
- But my child wants to get a good grade!!!!! Children feel really horrible if they work hard all year then get a poor grade!
- Why?
- ….. (no comment)
It was the end of the conversation and probably the last time she ever gets into a conversation with me. As it turned out, there are two basic rules governing how parents and students approach these exams:
Rule number one: One Must Get High Grades!
Rule number two: One Needs Easy Exams to Get High Grades!
And as could be seen from the previous very real conversation, the whole idea of high grades has almost nothing to do with what university the student targets: it’s almost an independent factor! All parents are looking for easier exams and higher grades, even if that really stops to have any meaning in itself.
It reminded me with the concept of “money illusion” from the economic textbooks: if everyone has more money, they feel good, even if in fact the prices went up swallowing the value of that extra money. We all remember from childhood years the question we asked our parents: if there’s a place where they print money, why don’t they just print money for everyone as much as they want?
Well, it seems someone picked the idea: exams are becoming easier and scores are free for everyone! Enjoy the fruit of stupidity as it flows into top universities which then are required to lower their standards to accept the new flood of mediocre students who hardly manage through their years of education and finally graduate to become horrible doctors, engineers, accountants, lawyers or whatever miserable profession they decide to get into.
How on earth do you want me to be treated by a doctor who scored 98% in their Thanaweya Amma exams but who really doesn’t remember how the chemical reactions of medicine take place in the body … because “that subject I didn’t really study since it was a very easy exam.”
I am speechless … but believe me, the above scenario DID HAPPEN and will continue to happen as long as “score illusion” still exists even among the top and most educated of this country!
We 3agaby!
7 Comments, Comment or Ping
very well put and said.
unfortunately all parents aim for high grades and top universities with no clue whatsoever if their kids are really up to it, so instead of focusing on increasing their intellectual level … they want easy exams to achieve this illusionary goal the easiest way possible.
June 20th, 2010
Mary, I totally understand…I just think it is also unfair to bring exams which asks students to think, while we never taught them that. It is like testing a skill, they do not have. I don’t even the teachers can think and analyse for their own!!! How can we ask the students to do that then?
I think it is the fault of the whole system and regime which asks us to memorize, yet not think for our own
June 20th, 2010
Monika,
You’re very right … exams are indeed the last bead in the cycle of failure in the system. However, the grade illusion was not created by the system .. it’s created by the community and that’s a very different problem that even fixing the system won’t help with.
Is the problem really about exams which ask students to think? I hardly imagine that’s the problem …. though I wish!! I don’t believe at all that there’s a teacher who even knows how to put these anymore!!!!!!! The problem as said is stupid exams which are not coming directly from the “morag3a neha2eya” or from a part in the syllabus which is not common to study as far as the newspapers complain. How I wish it was a problem of a “smart exam”!!!!
And thanks again for stepping by
June 20th, 2010
Fady,
you’re pouring salt on the hurting wound believe me! “Intellectual level” is a word that hardly many parents know what to do with, not to mention asking themselve what their kids want!
I will dedicate an article to that now that you stirred my emotions so strongly
June 20th, 2010
im not shocked! i mean…. thats how its been the whole time here in egypt. ppl r just under the umbrella of “omg…. i need to the top marks to get into uni” but the worst part is that students dont actually want to use their brain and think about the syllabus and the exam questions. but on second thoughts, i dont realy blame the students as this is how the system goes, schools dont even give a damn or bother about how students are educated and private teachers just spoon feed them untill they stop using their brain…
another stupid thing i would like to mention is that the parents dont even want to see where their children’s strong talents are and only want them to go to either a uni where they study biological science to become doctors or engeneering!!! no applied arts??? no where they can increase their talents??? i get shocked when parents think that way…. children (or young adults) should be supervised and observed when they r still young children to see where their talents are and try to make them stron because everyone is special in their own way…. and as long as the “spoon feeding” theory is there, thats NEVER going to happen!
im a student by the way in the IGCSE system and i lived my whole life outside egypt in a non arabic speaking country, i have been here for a couple of years and i have to keep doing my igcse exams over and over because i keep failing my “thanaweya amma” arabic exam (another stupid thing… its a must for even people with a diffrent type of study to do this exam, obviously i cant pass it, so i have been stuck at home for two years trying to pass this stupid nonsense exam and being able to even go to the AUC!!)
June 28th, 2010
Iman, what you’re saying is breaking the heart - spending two years of time wasted! I’m sorry to hear it from someone so young, but it’s absolutely true everything you said about how parents think. I hope in the future somehow things will end up in better shape than today.
July 4th, 2010
i totally agree with u,i am a thanawya student myself and i brought 95.6% in this year in second secondary which i wasn’t prepared for but when i saw students scores i feel happy cause i am distinguished even in this score so i belive that we really need that kind of exams to differentiate between excellent,good,average and bad students.
July 14th, 2010
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