National Education > General National Education Discussion

Questions about competition, grades, and study

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Eriny:
I'm really curious about what others think on the following questions (I've just been randomly thinking about this subject recently)

1. Would you study as hard as you do now if you weren't in direct competition with other students? Or, if you aren't in direct competition with other students (i.e. you aren't graded to a curve) would being in competition make a difference?

2. Would you study as hard if you weren't graded? i.e. just for personal satisfaction. What if you got to pick the curriculum and assessment schemes based on your interests?

3. Would you study as hard if you weren't graded but, as a small group (say, less than 5 of you) you all committed to finishing a project you were all really interested in and even though there weren't any contracts or anything, you knew that other members of the group were relying on you to do your part?

I think these are hard question, For me personally, I'd work just as hard if I weren't in direct competition with other students, but I probably do need to be graded to some extent (maybe not a number necessarily, but I'd need some level of feedback). With the group thing - I'm not sure, I think that there are incentives to do as little as possible without anyone noticing (like at work, pretty much), but then if I was genuinely interested in the project, maybe I'd want to do as much as possible. I've been in those kinds of situations before related to writing or something similarly creative and it's definitely been important for me to get my voice/opinions in.

Feel free to open up the discussion even further if you want, those questions are just meant as a starting point.

pi:
In relation to VCE, not uni.


--- Quote from: Eriny on July 03, 2012, 06:55:32 pm ---1. Would you study as hard as you do now if you weren't in direct competition with other students? Or, if you aren't in direct competition with other students (i.e. you aren't graded to a curve) would being in competition make a difference?

--- End quote ---

Coming from MHS, competition was the main driving force for the majority of my cohort. Personally, I didn't go into VCE to "beat others", but rather, to "not fall behind my friends and be the loser" (it may sound harsh, but that's what I was scared of and how I thought about it). So in essence, I wanted to do well, but I also wanted my mates to do well and when a couple of them didn't, I was actually genuinely sad for them on occasions.

If there wasn't such a competitive environment at school, I probably would have done a lot worse because that "driving force" wouldn't be there for my cohort. However, if the system was then something where a number was the resultant of the VCE years, my approach probably wouldn't have changed.



--- Quote from: Eriny on July 03, 2012, 06:55:32 pm ---2. Would you study as hard if you weren't graded? i.e. just for personal satisfaction. What if you got to pick the curriculum and assessment schemes based on your interests?

--- End quote ---

Probably not. I had two goals for VCE that served as motivation: 99.15 ATAR ambition and the light at the end of a road as a uni student in medicine/actuary/chem-engineering. Without a numerical aim, I probably wouldn't how how I'm going.

But for me, the number was just a number. I never really thought of what the number symbolised, just that I'd like that number (ie. mainly focused on my own progress, and as aforementioned, to keep up with my mates to reach that goal).

As for picking a curriculum, I'd be pretty lost haha.



--- Quote from: Eriny on July 03, 2012, 06:55:32 pm ---3. Would you study as hard if you weren't graded but, as a small group (say, less than 5 of you) you all committed to finishing a project you were all really interested in and even though there weren't any contracts or anything, you knew that other members of the group were relying on you to do your part?

--- End quote ---

I've always tried my best in all group tasks. It comes back to my sentiments in the first question, I don't want to be that "loser" who falls behind or fails my mates. I'd definitely study as hard.

TrueTears:

--- Quote from: Eriny on July 03, 2012, 06:55:32 pm ---I'm really curious about what others think on the following questions (I've just been randomly thinking about this subject recently)

1. Would you study as hard as you do now if you weren't in direct competition with other students? Or, if you aren't in direct competition with other students (i.e. you aren't graded to a curve) would being in competition make a difference?

2. Would you study as hard if you weren't graded? i.e. just for personal satisfaction. What if you got to pick the curriculum and assessment schemes based on your interests?

3. Would you study as hard if you weren't graded but, as a small group (say, less than 5 of you) you all committed to finishing a project you were all really interested in and even though there weren't any contracts or anything, you knew that other members of the group were relying on you to do your part?

I think these are hard question, For me personally, I'd work just as hard if I weren't in direct competition with other students, but I probably do need to be graded to some extent (maybe not a number necessarily, but I'd need some level of feedback). With the group thing - I'm not sure, I think that there are incentives to do as little as possible without anyone noticing (like at work, pretty much), but then if I was genuinely interested in the project, maybe I'd want to do as much as possible. I've been in those kinds of situations before related to writing or something similarly creative and it's definitely been important for me to get my voice/opinions in.

Feel free to open up the discussion even further if you want, those questions are just meant as a starting point.

--- End quote ---
Everyone differs, but these are my personal answers:

1. Competition provides no extra incentive to me to study hard, I would study just as hard if there was no competition or maybe even harder since when there is competition one tends to aim for higher marks rather than more knowledge thus limiting one's ability to truly study. I "study" simply because I am passionate about the things that I am learning, rather than studying for the sake of studying and beating others.

2. I actually feel that when subjects are graded it restricts and constrains me from reaching my full potential. The reasoning is simple, when exams are graded it gives a natural incentive to go for the HDs and high marks, however this doesn't necessarily test a person's knowledge. For example, I feel constrained by the limitations of the units I do because I have to study the material within the course and make sure I don't make mistakes for the questions that will appear on exams, thus one tends to focus on exams rather than truly "learning", but what I really want to do is just simply keep learning and forget about maximising marks, obviously I can't do that because the natural incentive of obtaining a high mark eludes me from spending too much time studying extra stuff. However, if one is passionate enough, one can definitely squeeze out time to study further simply because of their passion. Personally I attempt to do this but I feel that I would be able to learn much more if exams weren't graded.

3. I'm not too sure on what this question means but anyways, personally I don't like studying 'with' others; what I mean is, I certainly do love discussing certain topics of interest with others and learning from them but I don't like to rely on others for my studying - the best teacher is yourself.

Special At Specialist:
Well, I don't study very hard at all actually... maths is the only subject I put effort in. But I'll pretend I do for the sake of this survey:

1. No. Competition does help, especially since I'm a very competitive person. I always strive to be better than the people around me just for bragging rights.

2. No. Like most things, I seek some sort of comparable award for my efforts (eg. I wouldn't farm gold on WoW if it was just for personal satisfaction. I would want to show my gold off to others and compare it to see who is richer).

3. No. As much as I should, I would very easily lose motivation if this was all I was working for. If it was a small group that was being graded, then yes, but if it was ungraded and I was unable to show off my success to others, then no.

I know it probably sounds like I have such a terrible attitude towards school, but I can't control it sometimes. I am either motivated to work hard or I'm not, and it's difficult for me to force motivation upon myself.

Starlight:
I'm just going to give my uni perspective on this one.

1. My primary reason for doing study is because of my GPA. Obviously I want it as high as possible to have a greater chance in getting to postgraduate studies in the bSC. Competition is a factor in GPA I guess in that sense, you want it as high as possible.

2. As the other guys have said, aiming for high grades (e.g. H1s) is a reward for how hard you have studied.

3. I don't generally study in a group, I just lock myself in my room to do work lol

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