Yuku free message boards

Drew B wrote:

---

If working hard (e.g. cramming for YEARS for an entrance exam) makes the students genuinely smart and capable enough to handle the schoolwork, then kudos to them. If the hard work provides an artificially high assessment of their abilities and puts them in a position where they are doomed to fail (because they won't have years to cram for all of their day-to-day schoolwork), then it is really not in anybody's best interest.

Admission is not necessarily about accomplishment or hard work - it's at least partly about aptitude and the ability to comfortably handle the demands that will be placed upon them.

Think about it this way. If a minimally-talented violinist works his or her BUTT off to absolutely master one audition piece, he may manage to gain entry into a premiere symphony. However, if he is not, at heart, a great violinist, he is doomed to flounder and fail, no matter how great that one piece may have been...

But these are not the only issues facing students in highly competitive academic environments. There are also other external factors that influence academic performance other than natural ability.

I also wouldn't describe studying for years cramming. It's not like they are only studying for the entrance exam to the detriment of their other studies. It's called preparation. Your theory hinges on the assumption that the entrance exam measures aptitude when in actuality it measures knowledge. Knowledge is something learned. And depending on the competence of your education, it could be something that you may not have learned but someone in a school with better resources has learned. Also it's not like the knowledge is static. The exam is not a regurgitation of facts, but actually the knowledge learned in action/practice. Therefore, if they have the ability learn what's required for the exam then they certainly have the ability to learn what's required of them in high school. The stress would come more from expectations of academic performance. An A at Stuyvesant most definitely means more than at most other public and private schools, just like a C would probably mean more too. Logic dictates that in a school full of whiz kids, stress would be high because not everyone is going to get an A even if they deserve one, bell curve grading and all.

And comparing academic ability to artistic talent is like comparing apples to oranges.

ETA: Talent is unique to the individual, meaning very few if any can achieve the artistry they can. Your ability to understand school subjects isn't unique. Sure you can process them faster but that doesn't mean that others can't process it at all. Everyone has their own learning curve.