College entrance examination (l): General Scholastic Ability Test (大學學科能力測驗)

     Today I want to introduce one of the college entrance exam in Taiwan. In fact, there are two college entrance exams in Taiwan. One is "General Scholastic Ability Test(*1)," and the other one is "Advanced Subjects Test(*2)." I focus on the former, and I will talk about the latter next week.

      General Scholastic Ability Test can be traced back to 1994. Before then, there was only one exam, which was called "Joint College Entrance Examination(*3) (abolished in 2002)." General Scholastic Ability Test takes place in every winter vacation, and it's usually before Chinese's New Year. Maybe in order to let students have a good year?

      The advantage of it is that its scope(*4) doesn't include the lesson in senior, so it is easier to prepare. Also, its scoring mode is point sale. It uses the average of top 1% students score to decide the "級距(hard to translate)." So, you may get "15 point" even though you have some mistakes.

      The most important, if one goes smoothly without a hitch during the General Scholastic Ability Test, he/she will have very long summer vacation, which is nearly five months!


*1:General Scholastic Ability Test→大學學科能力測驗
*2:Advanced Subjects Test→大學指定科目考試
*3:Joint College Entrance Examination→大學聯考
*4:scope→範圍

Cram school

     When you were junior high school student and senior high school student,  what percentage of classmates in your class went to cram school after school? For me, it was 35% when I was junior high; more exaggerated, it was 85% when I was senior high.

     So, why many students goes to cram school? I think the reason is "preparatory class(*1)." It means that when you graduated from elementary school, you go to learn the lessons of junior high school. Similarly, when you graduated from junior high school, you go to learn the lessons of senior high school. In that way, you will think that you lead the game right from beginning(*2). However, it means that you need to spend much time studying both in school and cram school.

(http://www.success.org.tw/images/about_cg-02-1.jpg)

     Does the cram school help one to study well? Or it just causes counterproductive effect? Since I don't go to the cram school, I can't answer this question. What's your opinion?


*1:preparatory class→(n.)先修班
*2:lead the game right from beginning→贏在起跑點

Reward and Punish

    "Well down!" "You are such a good child!" "What are you doing?" "Are you kidding me?",etc. Well, there are many examples that adults talked to us when we were young. No matter what are they, I want to talk today is "when would you listen then?"

    When you got 100 or did the dishes, your teachers and your parents might extol(*1) you and maybe you would get some candy as prize. On the moment, you felt that you were living in the heaven. In order to get more compliment, you tried hard to perform well and tried to let others know that you were good.

https://quotesgram.com/nice-compliment-quotes/

    On the contrary, when you got failed on the exam (or you got 99 by a stupid mistake) or drew on the wall by crayons, they might crew your head off(*2) and your pocket money would turn into air, which made you feel that you were in hell. For fear of being punishing again, you did you best to avoid making the same mistake.

(http://www.wikihow.com/Punish-a-Child)

    By this two ways, you learned what you should do and what you shouldn't do. This is how education works.

*1:extol→(v.)稱讚
*2:crew one's head off 把...臭罵一頓

Homework

          Since someone left "I only hate homework. hahaha! so annoying." in my blog, so today I'm going to say something which we may also hate. ---"HOMEWORK."

       Remember what I talked about last week? Test is a way to check whether we learn the knowledge or not; homework is a way to help us to review before the test coming. Now, just compare test and homework. Which one you hate much? I think your answer is "HOMEWORK."

      I guess it because I hate homework more than test. It takes us much time finish the homework. Though each homework just need some time to do, we have a lot of homework. Finishing all of them becomes a tremendous amount of work(*1). In order to finish them, we lose time to do the thing we really want to do.

    So what is the benefit of homework? It helps us to know whether we are proficient at the subject. Therefore, we can make up (*2) for it before taking an exam. Be happy when you stay up doing your homework next time!

*1:a tremendous amount of work→(n.)浩大的工程

*2:make up 彌補

Test

    In your imagination, what is the reason that urge you to study? If there was not homework, would you study after class?  If there was not a quiz, would you keep studying?

    I think that you may probably answer "No." However, it doesn't mean that you are passive(*1). It means that you know the more important reason why you should study. The motivation why we study shouldn't just want to "get a score" or "pass the exam." We study because we know that we need it and use knowledge to achieve the things we pursuing.

    Maybe tests is a nightmare in our childhood, but I think it will be nostalgic(*2) in future. No tests means that we are not "children" anymore.

*1:passive  →(adj.)消極的
*2:nostalgic→(adj.)令人懷念的

Family

     Last two weeks,I was talking about "Urban-rural Gap",which was a big problem in Taiwan and many countries.This week,I shift the focus to the basic unit of society---family.

"Urban-rural Gap" may caused by government,but family also plays a big role in one's childhood.Go school can learn knowledge and make many good friends.,but teachers don't teach us to conduct oneself and to associate with people(做人處事).So,Who teaches us?Yes,the answer is our parents.

     Parents stay with us no matter what happens.They teach us almost everything.Thanks to them,both of us learn many things which are not able to learn from the book.Surely,it is a part of education,and they are the best teacher in our life,aren't they?

    As we grow up,we forget them and spend time with friends more often.Nevertheless,they still take care of us and teach us more things we may be encountered.They do so for no reasons,just because we are "family."

     Today is neither Mother's day nor Father's day.However,if you want to thanks your parents for teaching you so many things.You can show your appreciation for them and give them a big hug!!!

Urban-rural Gap(Il):Who can study in NTU?

    Now we all study in National Taiwan University.I believe that all of us did our best so that now we can study here.However,have you ever thought that the problem behind it?

    We first look at the left picture.It shows top 20 high schools which most student studied 2011-2014.Now we focus on the top 3,Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School,Taipei First Girls School,and High School of Normal University.Do you find the problem?Yes!They all sit in Taipei city!Let's look at 2014,there were over 30% come from the three schools.It's strange,isn't it?

(From:駱明慶《誰是台大學生?(2001-2014)—

多元入學的影響》)

    Now see the right.The students of NTU were nearly 50% came from Taipei city and Taipei country(now called New Taipei city).Are people in Taipei really smarter than other country?

   

    I don't think so. The fact is that students in Taipei have more resource,and ''the rate of teachers liquidity(師資流通率)''is lower.Therefore,it seems like students in Taipei smarter than other country.

    It's hard to solve the problem.Anyway,the thing decide one's value is mentality,not schools.So,don't be restricted by outside thing!