<p>The importance of tests in the Chinese system puts too much pressure on the students. Many of which find ways to cut corners in their learning. I’m saying they cheat but more they learn only what they need to pass the test and not what they need to pass in life.</p>
<p>Take this example- a friend of mine took the TOEFL. Rather than to learn english in general all he did was do practice tests, counselling, and learn all the tricks and strategies. If i remember correctly he scored 270 or so even though he can speak jack all in english. He’s currently on his 3rd “foundation year”. </p>
<p>So much for his 270 on the Toefl … I wonder how on earth he got anything on the essay …</p>
<p>i believe we discussed the different education systems much earlier … hehehe
i see the rebounded thread growth. as one of the stock owners of the chinese thread, i’m very happy to see that. hope our year end dividend will break even compare to last year. the bonus shower is coming</p>
<p>o dear. umm, instead of coffee…maybe try ice water? that always helps me to stay awake (…just make sure that there’s a restroom close by though)</p>
<p>i don’t have much to say about the chinese education, since i was only there for half of my schooling. but anyways, all i can say is that it’s much, much more solid. instead of sweeping through a broad range of topics like we tend to do here, in china we stayed on a topic until we beat it to death. i still remember some of the stuff we did in elementary school and have already forgotten half the things we learned senior year
and hmm, yuan you made an interesting comment on how we do better than americans in math and science. well, what else is there that we can compare to them with? the humanities…like english? american/european history? chinese poetry? to me, math and science is the universal language of the academia. </p>
<p>…yea, sorry. i think i’m pretty biased. can’t believe i’m a liberal arts major. lol</p>
<p>What yy said is not accurate. In China, if you want to do well in the national college entrance exam, you got to stay on all the subjects taught in school and beat every one of them to death. Chinese, math, English…these are all covered in the exam. Even you only did bad on one of them, you basically lose all the opportunities to go to a top university.<br>
Look, using different languages doesn’t mean the achievements on literature and fine arts can’t be compared. Nobel Prize is not only given to English speakers. Japanese is different from English (duh…), and there are Japnanese who got Nobel Prize on literature (I don’t remember his name now). Is there any Chinese got nominated for Nobel Prize on literature?</p>
<p>man we cant make good high tech sh***** for the same reason the french cant.</p>
<p>only big companies, mostly in the US, japan, and germany have the corporate secrets that are necessary for make the good stuff, but i m sure that was a rhetorical question</p>
<p>education doesnt make you smart, it cut out the ppl who the system dont like. honestly, wat system doesnt do that? friends come in groups b/c u just cant trust EVERYONE. and all skool does is make sure the “successful” ppl are ppl that will either easily fold or just keep paying societies taxes.</p>
<p>the person that doesnt educate hisself lets others enslave him</p>
<p>and comparing ppl dont have to be in math and science. math and science oriented ppl (which really depends on nurture over nature) may say sci is the standard, but sci is not in the belief of all ppl. the mayans had better astronomy but they were useless cuz they cant mold metals? wat about art? all the famous ancient stuff is art is it not? the sci stuff gets taken for granted, but germans were good at classical (and romantic and barok) music and itali got church paintings and stuff. but the germans own the italian cuz germans perfected the tank while all itali got is farari and ducati?</p>
<p>comparison shouldnt be better and worse, we recognize that there are general trends across borders and ingrain them as stereotypes. but wat good does that do for one person? so he has his little group of friends and his predefined niche in society? understand the system and own it. understand other ppl and rape them.</p>
<p>if its grades, u gotta depend on luck really and societal skills and guanxi. if its a test, ofc u gotta prepare for the test. i like the chinese system b/c u know wat? i own tests. i understand PEOPLE and figuring out the answer on a mutiple choice test doesnt require any studying. get out of the library, it’ll burn down any day now, and just keep options open.</p>
<p>o yea, cao tmd nobel prize, thats just an agent of the system. who cares about japanese literature? its all about the anime and the…</p>
<p>yuan:
you said 'In China, if you want to do well in the national college entrance exam, you got to stay on all the subjects taught in school and beat every one of them to death. Chinese, math, English…these are all covered in the exam. ’
^ exactly. lol. isn’t that what i said? to ace the sat, i don’t even think you need to go to school.
and yes. i sorta agree with your nobel prize statement. but maybe you need to think about how many of those judges/audience of interest are english speakers and how many of them are chinese speakers. just because something’s great doesn’t mean it’ll be appreciated. gosh. alright. back to work. i’m just throwing this out without much thought. yea. i’m ready to see it butchered</p>
<p>basically, i think the problem with the chinese education is that it doesn’t allow room for individuality or creativity. we get great basic stuff, especially in the sciences, but everything else isn’t up to standard. education for the chinese is basically just grades, even though we have all these 素质教育crap. chinese students love it cos it’s usually just a time to zone out. i mean how could we have 素质教育when the major exams are focused on what’s taught in the so-called 主科?</p>
<p>Supply<Demand, meaning shortage. That’s the case for the education sector in China. Fundamental educational reform is not even foreseeable in the close future, simply based on the fact that China is still in the primitive stage of a major overhaul (society-wise) which may help drag China out of the current quagmire characterized by a huge income gap between different groups, outcry of protests in rural areas etc and other problematic social and economic issues. Yes, eventually, education will be easily accessible to the general public, but it takes time.
I spent six years in a nationally acclaimed HS in China but you know what? Screwing one test will not kill your chances at all. I applied for Sun-Yat-Sen University and was admitted into the econ program with a shabby 560/900 in Chinese. Yes, I still made it. I still graduated top from my HS, lol, funny story. And other than that, I also made it to the final round of the HKU admission. I withdrew after I got my US visa. Now I sort of know how some of my peers are growing “personally and academically” by engaging in online gaming, gambling, alcoholism and promiscuity. Nowadays, colleges in China do not resemble the image of a typical “Ivory Tower”. A lot of them are eager to either cash in or exploit national funding to feed the pockets of tenured profs.</p>
<p>I spent six years in a nationally acclaimed HS in China but you know what? Screwing one test will not kill your chances at all. I applied for Sun-Yat-Sen University and was admitted into the econ program with a shabby 560/900 in Chinese.</p>
<p>Isn’t the full score of Chinese exam 150? I don’t really know what is your case. However, what I said is screwing one test in the National college entrance exam could kill all your chance of getting in top universities like Peking and Tsinghua. The admission process of HKU is quite different from those of universities in mainland. What is Sun-Yat-Sen University anyway?</p>
<p>Quote:</p>
<p>Nowadays, colleges in China do not resemble the image of a typical “Ivory Tower”. A lot of them are eager to either cash in or exploit national funding to feed the pockets of tenured profs.</p>
<p>yryuan23: I believe it is usually called 中山大学 and somewhere in the South lol。Seems to have heard of it before. Dont know much about colleges. Chances are if i stayed in China I would have gone to Nanjing University.</p>
<p>In the Southern province of Guangdong, the testing scale kinda differs from that of other regions in China. Yes, lixuelai is correct. Sun-Yat-Sen University is more internationally known than Zhongshan. I got crummy scholarship from U of Rochester. It bugs me so much. They only award a tiny amount of scholarships to intls. If I wanna go, I have to pay like 39K a year. My parents can live a frugal life compared to what it is right now for them but still pay 39K a year for me but I wouldn’t let them do this. Too crazy… Maybe I should just settle down again at Tulane and try to get into an Ivy for grad school.</p>
<p>Oh, how are you people lately? I’m sorta burned-out cos I have to worry about a lot of things lately. Anyways, I will be in Shanghai by next Sunday. A few days in the Yangtze River delta area, visiting my aunt and buddies, then heading to Shenzhen. Home sweet home, ah…</p>
<p>lucky you zhou. ronty007… i think u can check the stanford website and they say it somehwere on there. i remember reading it last year when i applied but i dont remember if it was dec or jan.</p>
<p>I was so burned out earlier this week…had to rely on caffein to stay up writing papers. My classes end tomorrow and then we’ll have study period till 14th. It’s a pretty stressful period for everyone, so…take care of yourselves :)</p>