issue55 Competition for high grades

ilmfampUID: 188503

55.Competition for high grades seriously limits the quality of learning at all levels of education.

Many people  consider high marks as the tokens of good students. As a result, competition for high grades among students is common. But such kind of competition, different from that in work and society, greatly limits the learning quality of students.

To begin with, competition for high grades distorts students from the original purpose of learning, which aims at offering students the ability to acquire new knowledge, the courage to surmount difficulties and the self-confidence to success. High grades should never be considered as the aim of learning. Grades are used just as tools by teachers to see how well their students perform in some knowledge points that they thought are important. However, students do not understand this well. Those acquiring high marks tend to consider themselves as having grasped those tested subjects.  And others who get lower marks or even lose the exams incline to feel depressed and self-depreciated. Thus students exaggerate one tool to a criterion of their abilities and make effort to match that criterion. Such kind of test-oriented idea distorts students from pursuing the real aim of learning.

Secondly, being “test-oriented", students learn passively, which seriously deteriorate the quality of learning. Under this situation, students pay most of their attention to acquiring high makes, and thus share no time or little time to their interests. If there is no competition in the exams,the burden of acquiring high marks will be loosen. Then students have the chance to learn by “interest-oriented”. One revolution method carried out in our school serves as a good example , which used only " pass" and "fail" to judge students. Without competition for higher marks, many students chose to learn following their own noses. And the result turned out to be a great success: students read more extracurricular books to satisfy their interests, and innovative ideas sometimes came out, which showed that students were on a state of active learning. Compared with “ interest-oriented” learning, “test-oriented”learnig, though may lead to high marks, would limite students' abilities to some extent.

Admittedly, competition is good from the point of view that it prepares students to face more severe competition after they graduate, but it may be too early for them to bear such burden. In a society which treats getting high mark as the most important thing for students, great pressure will load on students from parents, teachers, peers and even students themselves. And the pressure will greatly influence the mental health of students.In China, research indicates that 28% of high school students have slight psychological disorders; 3.9% have some, and 0.1% have serious mentally diseases. And huge pressure has now become the main cause of Chinese teenagers'suicide and crime. These facts and figures make us worry that without healthy psychology, what does the quality of learning mean?

In all, competition for high grades distorts the aim of learning and misguides the way to learn. What's more important, it influences the full development of students. Without competition for high grades, the quality of learning would be greatly improved.

xiongyicnUID: 192745

我也在写这篇文章，但写着写着就写不下去了。我的论点跟你一样。对于grade system的坏处也能说一堆。但是后面limiting the quality of learning却不知道怎么去展开。甚至觉得自己有些跑题，就停下来不写了。

看了一下你的，有一些拼写错误，我就不说了。我觉得你写的不错，但是只有第三段很多地结合了the quality of learning来论述。希望你也提一下想法，大牛们也来给点意见。

ilmfampUID: 188503

谢谢xiongyicn，你说的很有道理

我写这篇的思路是，
B1追求高分使学习的目的发生了改变
（按照你的建议我想我必须指出：要保证学习的质量首先要方向对才行，如果方向都错了学习的质量就会受到影响）
B2追求高分是被动的学习方法因此限制了学习的质量
B3追求高分带来心理问题
（我想我需要换个角度写，带来的心理问题严重影响了学习质量）

再次感谢

xiongyicnUID: 192745

I have finished this essay under your outline, and :) copy a compelling example from your essay, don't mind, and please rate

55.Competition for high grades seriously limits the quality of learning at all levels of education.

It is undoubted that, competition in the company or organization, would be beneficial to the work efficiency, which also has been the indispensable virtue in the modern society. However, when it comes to the competition for high grades during the learning, I strongly agree with the speaker that competition for high grades seriously limits the quality of learning at all levels of education.

To begin with, competition for high grades would blur, or even mislead the understanding about the aim of learning, which to a certainty limits the quality of learning. The aim of learning is to gain and master knowledge or skills by study, instruction, or experience. As we all know that, high grades usually mean a well job, more exactly a high score in the examinations, and consequently competition for high grades just causes students' concerning a lot about the examinations, and consider examinations as the entire goal of learning. Take me for example, I always struggled for
high grades until my college education since the grades determine the admission to the further education, to great extent, under my national educational system. For the purpose of high grades, I pay my most attention to these sorts of knowledge, which would appears in the examinations as some instructions show, and meanwhile put little or even no energy on other knowledge, but which are equally or even more important for my further education, even my research and career. So, now I have to look back to these knowledge missed before, which occupies so much time and energy that limits my present quality of learning, and consequently a vicious circle is formed.

Another element to lend strong support to the statement is that the competition for high grades would result in the passive learning manner inevitably, which seriously limits the quality of learning. Broadly speaking, the learning manner can be divided into two classes: active learning and passive learning. And usually, the interests for certain sorts of knowledge lead to active learning, which is more effective than passive learning. The question is whether or not the interesting knowledge would always appear in the examinations. The answer is obviously no. It doesn't ensure that different students share the same interests. So, the competition for high grades necessarily leads to some students learn not for their own interest but for the examinations, which may result in some of them have to abandon their interest and form a passive learning manner.  One revolution method carried out in our school serves as a good example, which used only "pass" and "fail" to judge students. Without competition for higher marks, many students chose to learn following their own interests. And the result turned out to be a great success: students read more extracurricular books to satisfy their desire for interests, and innovative ideas sometimes came out, which showed that students were on a state of active learning and have a good quality of learning.

However, on the other hand, I must concede that competition is necessary for effective learning at all levels of education, but this competition should not be confined just for a high scores, but for a wide range. We should compete for who is the first to master the skills by given instructions, we should compete for who has deeper insight for the knowledge, we should compete for who is more creative and innovative. It is only competition for a wide range during learning that can stir us beyond ourselves, and promise us passion and energy in the learning.

In sum, competition for high grades impedes the effective learning at all levels of education. But denying competition at all during learning is also an unwise action. How to treat the competition and make it promote the effectiveness of learning is the responsibility of all people concerning about education.