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March 29, 2024, 03:19:34 am

Author Topic: Pedantic teacher  (Read 1932 times)  Share 

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lst1103

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Pedantic teacher
« on: March 22, 2019, 05:46:08 pm »
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I got my Psych SAC back today and my teacher took marks off for a question about the strengths and limitations of GAS - he said that whilst what I wrote was correct, it's not EXACTLY what was in the textbook. He said that both he and the examiners expect me to quote directly from the textbook.
Is anyone else's teacher so ridiculously pedantic?!

Sine

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2019, 06:48:04 pm »
+5
I got my Psych SAC back today and my teacher took marks off for a question about the strengths and limitations of GAS - he said that whilst what I wrote was correct, it's not EXACTLY what was in the textbook. He said that both he and the examiners expect me to quote directly from the textbook.
Is anyone else's teacher so ridiculously pedantic?!
biology and psych are notorious for teacher's/assesors wanting specific key words/phrasing - hopefully it will prepare you well for your exam.

lst1103

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2019, 09:32:51 pm »
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biology and psych are notorious for teacher's/assesors wanting specific key words/phrasing - hopefully it will prepare you well for your exam.

Oh, I get that, but he said that he wanted me to literally recite the textbook and implied that original albeit correct ideas were frowned upon.

Bri MT

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2019, 10:34:26 am »
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Oh, I get that, but he said that he wanted me to literally recite the textbook and implied that original albeit correct ideas were frowned upon.

Without seeing the wording myself it is difficult for me to comment on whether what you wrote is likely to be given full marks by VCAA or not. Sometimes when writing your own response you can miss nuances in the words which change whether or not it's a suitable answer (and for EEG, EMG & EOG you need to use exact wording). That being said, I didn't memorise textbook definitions and you shouldn't be required to do so to succeed; if this is an ongoing pattern you have concerns about I recommend you talk to your teacher and - if you feel it's needed - other relevant staff at your school.

I'd be careful about leaning too heavily on inferences; getting SACs back is understandably something you'll have strong feelings about & that can make it easy to misinterpret things

Good luck!

lleeea

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2019, 02:38:44 pm »
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Hi,

I would just stick to what vcaa says. I think vcaa has a question on one of its past exams about strength and limitations of gas. i suggest u see what they've written in the examiners report and just memorise some of the ones they have given. Ur teacher wont be able to mark u down if you've written a VCAA approved answer!

beardedbandit

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2019, 12:31:40 pm »
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Hey!

While it's important to understand key concepts in psych, vcaa definitely does not want you to regurgitate big chunks of info from the textbook.

Teachers can be a bit annoying, but if she wants you to UNDERSTAND the content through the textbook, then she is just helping you prepare for the exam.

At the end of the day, the exam is what really matters for your study score, and as long as you aren't completely despised by your teacher, you'll be fine :).

howey

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2019, 06:32:22 pm »
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While it's important to understand key concepts in psych, vcaa definitely does not want you to regurgitate big chunks of info from the textbook.
This.

Particularly in recent years, Psych has moved more towards applying knowledge rather than memorising definitions or chunks of the textbook.

So while it's hard to comment on your teacher and your answer without seeing what was written, I personally don't agree with trying to memorise points from the textbook word-for-word.

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up" - Babe Ruth

dashnog

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2019, 01:57:04 am »
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I would say that if you needed to quote the definition verbatim, that sounds a bit insane. However, if what was meant was that you missed out on a few key adjectives to more precisely describe GAS, then that would make sense. I don't see the point in learning textbook definitions word-for-word accurately, it seems pointless compared to actually being able to apply the theory you've learned.

As others have said though, VCE Sciences are indeed notorious for wanting some of the most specific and precise answers imaginable, and a good way to think about how to answer those kinds of questions is to say to yourself "What if I was to explain this to someone who has no idea what this thing is?" By framing the question that way, you will be cognizant about creating an explanation that's as holistic and specific as possible so that the layman has all the information they need to perfectly understand the concept(s).
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vox nihili

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Re: Pedantic teacher
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2019, 11:27:25 am »
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I got my Psych SAC back today and my teacher took marks off for a question about the strengths and limitations of GAS - he said that whilst what I wrote was correct, it's not EXACTLY what was in the textbook. He said that both he and the examiners expect me to quote directly from the textbook.
Is anyone else's teacher so ridiculously pedantic?!

Just to really agree with the above, you don't need to be able to quote the textbook verbatim and marking someone down for that is remarkably silly.
2013-15: BBiomed (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), UniMelb
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