The Philosophy of Examinations

I would like to state once again that the main purpose of an examination is as a barrier for students to ensure that they have learned the content that they have been taught.

The secondary purpose then is to evaluate how well the student has learned the content.

Therefore, the main outcome from a student's point of view would be to learn the all material that is examinable, and for the school/institution to see how well the material has been taught to the students.

This means that results, are by no means that main aim of the examination for the student, but rather to ensure that they learn and know the examinable content, irrespective of whether it is examined or not.

The process of actually studying for the examination is paramount and is the reason why examinations/tests/reviews are organised. Although the results are the end result achieved by the means of studying, the ends do not always need to correlate to the means, and this does not mean that the means of obtaining the end result was not justified.

As such, I do not understand why people actually think that the more important part is the result and not the process. Anyone care to enlighten?

p.s. It does not matter if you obtained an A1 or an C5 in your Bahasa SPM paper, as long as you know how to use the language well; it does not matter if you obtained 65% or 100% on your living skills mid year exam, as long as you know how to use your tools and are able to survive; obtaining a 98% in maths vs 44% is irrelevant, as long as you know how to do the math at the end of the day. Just make sure that the inverse does not happen. It's held true for me so far.

So far...

I have just painstakingly double and triple checked my passports to ensure that the information below is correct for my application for a US Visa. So far, these are the countries which I have visited.

Country Year of Each Visit
Japan 1992, 2003
People’s Republic of China 2004
Australia
Singapore ... 2005, 2006, 2007
Republic of Ireland 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
France 2006, 2007, 2008
United Kingdom 2006, 2007, 2008
Italy 2007, 2008
Germany 2007, 2008
Morocco 2007
Thailand ... 2007
Norway 2007
Sweden 2007
Spain 2008
Portugal 2008
Switzerland 2008
Turkey 2008
Greece 2008
Poland 2008
Czech Republic 2008
Austria 2008
Hungary 2008
Slovenia 2008
Croatia 2008
The Netherlands 2008

And these are the places I have booked tickets to:
France 2009
USA 2009
UK 2009

And these are the other countries I hope to visit in the near future (before I start working):
Vietnam, Cambodia, The Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Syria, Jordan, India

And these are the other countries I hope to visit at some period during my lifetime:
China (again), Tibet, South Korea, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Egypt,, Israel, Canada.

It's all about the MONEY...

I am always greatly surprised and intrigued at the result of a totally random discussion. Anyway, this blog is a result of a discussion and a lot of mathematics.

Although this may not be Fermat's Last Theorem, it involves nonetheless, figures which are or stunning significance. This is ONLY the tuition fee paid by each RCSI student.

RCSI has 3 tiers of tuition fees for Medical Students. Firstly, the EU school leavers are covered under the Government Free Fees Scheme. Secondly, there are Non EU school leavers who had to pay €38,500 for the 2006 academic year. Lastly, there are students under the PMC/RCSI Twinning Programme, like my humble self, who pay a special rate of €25,000 a year.

Taking the PMC/RCSI Tuition Fee as the basis for this calculation, thats €25,000.

During the academic year of 2006/2007, which is Junior Cycle 1 & 2, we have had 295 50-minute lectures, 8 50-minute Case Based Tutorials & 36 90-minute Anatomy classes.

This bring a total of 18,390 of teaching minutes that each student receives.

Dividing the amount of teaching minutes with the tuition fees paid, 18390 minutes / €25,000, this equals €1.36/minute of teaching minutes paid.

Using the exchange rate for today available on XE.com of €1=RM4.67, this means the PMC students pay RM6.35 per minute to attend RCSI or RM317.38 for each 50-minute lecture, or RM571.29 for each 90-minute anatomy class.

If this is considered expensive, what more the fees that the Non EU school leavers who are not under the twinning program pay!!!

To me, this is an incredible amount of money spent on an education. So the next time you fall asleep in class, or decide not to go and do not do any work to catch up, or decide to play games or go out instead of going to class, think TWICE or 6.35 times before doing so...

p.s. The price of the tuition fees are expected to increase further for the 2007 academic year...
p.s. Neither does this include the cost of living in Dublin...
p.s. Click on the RM6.35 per minute link above...

Irish survey shows religious ignorance-- especially among youth

This does not come as a surprise at all...

The most striking ignorance was displayed by respondents between the ages of 19 and 24.

A minority of respondents between 19 and 24 could name the three Persons of the Trinity. Just 47% of the young people answered that question correctly.

Only 38% of the young respondents could provide the number of Gospels in the New Testament, and another 38% could give the number of Catholic sacraments.

For the full story, click here.