What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry? (4 Viewers)

[enoilgam]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

nah, at a lot of schools saying that someone is really dedicated is like an insult, because it implies that they spend all their time working while the other person is naturally gifted... and that can be pretty offensive. i hate when people say i'm really dedicated, just because they're pretending they never have to study

Being dedicated is an insult - really? To be honest, I have 10 times more respect for someone who works hard as opposed to someone who is only successful because they are naturally gifted.

 

[Spiritual Being]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

THe problem that english is subjective, a 15 to one teacher might be a 20 to another, hence why english should NOT be a compulsory subject if marked like this, u cant be consistent , its impossible

that too my schools apeal process is horrible!

True. It is subjective, yes and certain teachers prefer writing styles and they mark higher accordingly.

This IS NOT the issue however, if there is one teacher marking the assignment, they must apply the same equal principles to each student. So, if a student got 5/15, then another student who churned a similar essay should get around that mark, not 13/15. I think this is the main issue, and where bias comes into play.

 

[Spiritual Being]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Being dedicated is an insult - really? To be honest, I have 10 times more respect for someone who works hard as opposed to someone who is only successful because they are naturally gifted.

At school, someone I know has the same mentality:

"I hate it when people say I study for many hours, because I don't need to study even close to that to get great marks."

 

[enoilgam]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

At school, someone I know has the same mentality:

"I hate it when people say I study for many hours, because I don't need to study even close to that to get great marks."

The whole logic to me doesnt make any sense - being lazy and riding off your natural talents is highly respected, but actually working hard is viewed as being a bad thing.

 

[Spiritual Being]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

The whole logic to me doesnt make any sense - being lazy and riding off your natural talents is highly respected, but actually working hard is viewed as being a bad thing.

I guess it's all a mind game.

If someone is constantly in your face everyday advocating their 'lack of study' and their 'great results', as humans, we illogically feel bad (i.e. a kid studies a lot and gets much lower marks, how come this kid does nothing and is rank 1). Besides, that is counting on the idea that the individual that says they 'don't study' is telling the truth, which is very unlikely.

 

[enoilgam]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

I guess it's all a mind game.

If someone is constantly in your face everyday advocating their 'lack of study' and their 'great results', as humans, we illogically feel bad (i.e. a kid studies a lot and gets much lower marks, how come this kid does nothing and is rank 1). Besides, that is counting on the idea that the individual that says they 'don't study' is telling the truth, which is very unlikely.

Spoken like a true veteran. I know it seems a bit contradictory to what I said before, but it is actually quite rare to find a person who does very little and gets outstanding marks. From my experience, when someone says "I got INSERT HIGH MARK and did zero study", it's most likely a gross exaggeration or an outright lie.

 

[btx3]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

I burnt down f block at my school because we had two biology classes and the other one had their classes in in f block and they had the first rank student so i intended to kill him by starting a fire but unfortunately the whole block burnt down instead

 

[JT145]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Just reading through this thread I remember one example...

In Year 11 there was this one guy that was really good at a particular subject. So he went into the exam, asked for a toilet break in the exam, looked at his notes and came out again.

The funny thing was that he admitted doing so after he bragged about it. (at least from what I heard anyway. My story may be wrong but I've verified it with other people) The entire class was outraged.

Brought it to the Head of Department, he didn't do a thing. Idk what happened after that when they tried taking it to a higher authority.

What annoyed me even more is that he is in a considerable leadership position in my school. I felt at the time that the school did nothing because they couldn't afford standing down a person in a leadership position.

I reckon it's a little different when someone is accused of cheating (with no evidence) but if someone admits to it... well it's a little different.

/rant. I really don't like this guy

 

[Spiritual Being]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Just reading through this thread I remember one example...

In Year 11 there was this one guy that was really good at a particular subject. So he went into the exam, asked for a toilet break in the exam, looked at his notes and came out again.

The funny thing was that he admitted doing so after he bragged about it. (at least from what I heard anyway. My story may be wrong but I've verified it with other people) The entire class was outraged.

Brought it to the Head of Department, he didn't do a thing. Idk what happened after that when they tried taking it to a higher authority.

What annoyed me even more is that he is in a considerable leadership position in my school. I felt at the time that the school did nothing because they couldn't afford standing down a person in a leadership position.

I reckon it's a little different when someone is accused of cheating (with no evidence) but if someone admits to it... well it's a little different.

/rant. I really don't like this guy

I guess it was the guilty conscience which can be very internally consuming that propelled his admission.

As much as he (may) have bragged, your head teacher did the right thing. We just can't make the fundamental distinction of whether he admitted to it, or whether he did not and it's just made up. Due to this inability, the ONLY rightful decision is not to do anything. If you have an objective assessment of the situation: A kid cheats, then admits to it. It defies proper logic, especially because cheating requires an individual to be illustrious. Is he going to deviate from his character and just admit to everything? He probably did, but it's not appealing enough nor is it enough evidence to prove that he did in fact cheat.

I mean, if he were to walk outside of the exam room, and the notes fall from his sleeve, then it increases the likelihood of the premise. It depends on the circumstances.

 

[deviouswatch]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Spoken like a true veteran. I know it seems a bit contradictory to what I said before, but it is actually quite rare to find a person who does very little and gets outstanding marks. From my experience, when someone says "I got INSERT HIGH MARK and did zero study", it's most likely a gross exaggeration or an outright lie.

or it's the truth, as it is in most cases with me
Mwuahahahahaha

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Things that happened to me or to others in my year sound soap opera compared to this.

Point was, people who tried to use psyching out tactics were just wasting their own emotional energy and study time. The people who deserved to do well did, and had an added resilience bonus because of what they ignored from others.

 

[Makematics]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

lol idk if this counts but at least 25% of our grade got their tutors to do their Mod C hand-in assignments and as a result a mark of 80% would get you a rank of 110/170 for that task -.-

 

[JT145]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

lol idk if this counts but at least 25% of our grade got their tutors to do their Mod C hand-in assignments and as a result a mark of 80% would get you a rank of 110/170 for that task -.-

Surely tutors must know the difference between right and wrong? Or are they getting paid tons :/

 

[deviouswatch]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

lol idk if this counts but at least 25% of our grade got their tutors to do their Mod C hand-in assignments and as a result a mark of 80% would get you a rank of 110/170 for that task -.-

^ this is why my school has no hand in assignments for HSC.
Except for Chemistry because it's a gay subject.

 

[Makematics]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Surely tutors must know the difference between right and wrong? Or are they getting paid tons :/

no what's worse is their students just tell them that it's a practice essay or something lol

 

[JT145]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

no what's worse is their students just tell them that it's a practice essay or something lol

Tutors should be encouraging students to think for themselves instead of writing them out an essay. Personally I learn better by receiving feedback on stuff I've done rather than look over someone else's work.

 

[Drifting95]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

^ this is why my school has no hand in assignments for HSC.
Except for Chemistry because it's a gay subject.

That's better anyway, it will develop student's exam technique. I know students who are very smart and get top marks when it comes to assignments, but put them in an exam under pressure and they get destroyed.

 

[Bobbo1]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Spoken like a true veteran. I know it seems a bit contradictory to what I said before, but it is actually quite rare to find a person who does very little and gets outstanding marks. From my experience, when someone says "I got INSERT HIGH MARK and did zero study", it's most likely a gross exaggeration or an outright lie.

Sooo true, throughout HSC I always come across people who "don't study" and somehow manage to get really high marks for ENGLISH. Supposedly, their just born with knowledge of Hamlet, Frankenstein quotes and analysis. So I'd say just ignore theses snakes and focus just on yourself: there's no time to be worrying about others in the HSC!

 

[Absolutezero]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

Spoken like a true veteran. I know it seems a bit contradictory to what I said before, but it is actually quite rare to find a person who does very little and gets outstanding marks. From my experience, when someone says "I got INSERT HIGH MARK and did zero study", it's most likely a gross exaggeration or an outright lie.

I'd wager it's more an application of the Dunning Kruger effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

Whereby smart people underestimate the amount they actually study. It's not lying or exaggeration, it's just not consciously recognised.

 

[enoilgam]

Re: What absurd things have people done in your school due to competition and rivalry

I'd wager it's more an application of the Dunning Kruger effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

Whereby smart people underestimate the amount they actually study. It's not lying or exaggeration, it's just not consciously recognised.

Also true (when I said exaggeration, I didnt necessarily mean to imply that they were aware of said exaggeration). I made this post a while ago on the reasons why people do this:

Anyways, that issue aside, the problem with the whole "how much work do you do argument" is that its hard to get a straight answer from people, and the reasons are as follows:

1) In the pre-HSC years, people are lead to believe that the HSC requires some enourmous and seemingly inhuman effort. Whilst the HSC does require a big effort, its not as significant as your led to believe in the earlier years. So when people actually do the HSC, they often think that their efforts arent enough as they fail to compare to their unrealistic idea of what the HSC requires.

2) People often feel guilty when they dont study, and this leads them to conclude that their effort was lousy. There are 24 hours in a day, 8 of which are spent sleeping (on average). Although this leaves 16 hours left in a day, you cannot spend every minute studying, you need to rest and eat otherwise you will burn yourself out. Many HSC students feel guilty when they take breaks or dont use most of their waking hours to study. This guilt leads students to believe that they didnt try their best.

3) For some reason, people would much rather say "I got a [insert huge ATAR] and I didnt do lots of work" as opposed to saying "I got [insert huge ATAR] and I put in a great effort".

4) Most people who get great ATAR's are very critical of themselves, which leads them to believe that they did not put in their best. The ironic thing is that this self-criticism helps people to achieve great results.

5) Definitions of study and work vary from person to person. Some people do not consider writing study notes to be a form of study, nor do they consider making a consistant effort with homework and classwork to be anything special. The fact is, the average student who gets around 70 would probably not even make a consistant effort in class or with homework.

In my opinion, most people who get a great ATAR, put in a significant amount of effort to get there. Whilst this effort varies due to natural intelligence, the whole line "I got a great ATAR and I bludged" is not true in the vast majority of circumstances. I know most people will probably beg to differ with this post, but thats my honest opinion.