I wrote and passed my exam, therefore I know!❌🤓

[amunette]

Being a Business Information Technology student for about four years now, while studying modules that are mostly practical I question the necessity of theoretical examinations. Arguably, how can you gauge a persons knowledge on a topic that takes years of experience to be mastered and is now being taught in about six months?

Ultimately what do we study for?

• To gain knowledge that will help enrich your life?
• To have a piece of paper that has your name and qualification on it?
• Because my parent's told me to?

Sometimes I question these points, what keeps a person motivated to study? As a person who seeks to gain knowledge more than just pass a module to say "Hey, I've done it." The educational system makes me question many things...

A personal example

After studying project management in my last semester and being asked the definition of a scrum methodology, I can definitely re-iterate the definition I sat and memorized the day before this question was given to me, but ask me to implement a scrum methodology in a project and I will probably go cross-eyed. How is this beneficial?

There have been one too many exams where I have had to sit and memorize or cram content into my brain just so that I could pass this subject, but therein lies the problem, after sitting down to write the exam the second I have left the venue I have forgotten everything that took me days to remember.

The leap from studying to working

I recently started a job as a junior developer, excited about my new position and all the knowledge I had been taught at university, I was ready to tackle the tasks. Little did I know that university did very little to prepare me for the working world. Most individuals that I have spoken to seem to think the exact same thing, in fact some have even regretted studying altogether.

Are students to blame?

Granted not everything can be completely pinned on lecturers and the education system. Learning is a two way street and if you are trying to provide knowledge, but students are unwilling to accept it, then naturally the lecturer will be less enthusiastic about their teachings.

Comments

[evolved08gsr]

So I believe it's a mixture of students and the university. Certain Universities, bluntly, don't prepare their students for the real world because they are overly "academic". What I mean from this is that they are so far disconnected from the real world and real companies and what real students will be facing in the real world that they do not adequately prepare their students for real life.

With that said, they are teaching you valuable "core skills" that you will be using in your real life job. You may not consider that the reason you're able to understand the new programming language that your job uses compared to the programming language that you learned in school is because you were taught basic and fundamental concepts that all programming languages share. Without that base knowledge, you could be floundering at your new job.

No University is going to prepare ALL of their students for EVERYTHING in the real world. That is simply too high of an expectation. As a Student you have the personal responsibility to prepare yourself (through internships / externships / keeping up with your intended industry) before you leave the University. As a University, they have the responsibility to provide you with adequate skills and opportunities to use the knowledge that you learned over the last 2 / 4 / 5 / etc. years and apply them to a real job.

[amunette]

I completely agree with everything you have said. Personally the biggest issue I have is when a lecturer just spoon feeds you their module so their stats look good, but at the end of it all you haven't really gained anything from completing the course. It's sort of a big waste of time at the end of it all.

[simmbrare]

I liked that post. If you can go check out my posts and make sure to follow <3 i would really appreciate that.

[amunette]

Sure, I'll be sure to do that :) have a good evening.