When I was in grade six, along with about 100 people, I sat a test to get into the accelerated learning program at a high school. I got in, and a quarter of the test takers would later form an accelerated class at our school.
At my high school, the structure was such that we did year 8 maths (and some covered year 7 and a bit of year 8 of other core subjects like English and science) in year 7, year 9 maths in year 8 (covering the rest of year 8 science and year 9 science, and up to year 9 English), skipping year 9 and doing almost the same things as all the other year 10 classes in year 10 if we decided to stay on at the school and not go to Melbourne High School (MHS) or Mac.Robertson Girls' High School (MacRob) for example.
From then, we had the opportunity to do "two year VCE" if we wanted to, to finish high school a year earlier, or "three year VCE" if we wanted to use up a year "saved" to try to get a better mark in VCE. I took up the "two year VCE" option, like a lot of my peers, and subsequently successfully completed VCE, completed Biomedicine in the usual time, and I'm now in medicine.
However, after my year level went straight to year 10 and skipped year 9, the school decided to change the arrangements of the accelerated program for future year levels. Instead of skipping year 9, you did mainly year 10 core subjects in year 9. In "year 10", students were required to take up year 11 English, History and Mathematical Methods (mid-level VCE maths). Due to the inflexibility of the subjects possible for electives, it effectively forced people to undergo "three year VCE", with the first year being year 10.
To be honest, I was quite baffled with their change in policy at the school. I personally did not feel that there was much wrong with the old "two year VCE" after acceleration system. What was so wrong about people leaving school one year early, when they were entirely capable of doing so and able to study at university? Surely going to university would be more effective use of their time than staying back at school for another year.
The stated reason from the school seemed to be due to concerns about the maturity about the students leaving. There was concern that the people undergoing two year VCE after being in the accelerated learning program would not be mature enough to go to university because they were one year younger. While this is a point which may be true for some people, I don't think it is a good reason to keep everyone back. Myself and many others who have done "two year VCE" after being part of the accelerated program have managed to successfully complete a bachelor degree within the normal time frame. (In hindsight, maybe I could have skipped two years too, seeing that my GAMSAT score in 2010 was still clearly enough for UQ medicine for a CSP place for 2011 entry, or 2012 entry for that matter, without an interview.) Furthermore, for those who may not be ready for university that early, they still did have the option of "three year VCE" to use up their "saved" year.
Furthermore, being unable to skip a year anymore at my high school (which has a lower SES on average) removes one of the advantages of staying on at the school. Before, the advantage of staying on meant that you got to skip straight from "year 8" to year 10 and finish a year earlier, which you couldn't do if you went to MHS or MacRob for example. Now though, that option does not exist, so there is less of a reason to stay on at the school and not move to MHS or MacRob.
Sometimes I wonder if the school had another motive for changing the system. Was it to try to lift up the proportion of 40+ (top 9%) study scores in their statistics? I'm not sure if it was a reason, but if it was, then it was not really to the benefit of the students who could have started their bachelor degree a year earlier.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
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Hong come on- assuming that skipping things as fast as possible ignores the reality that we don't develop emotionally or socially as quickly as our quantitative math and science skills do.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally an argument could easily be made that younger graduates at tertiary level will be predisposed to poorer professional outcomes/progress, for the reasons I mentioned above. Would be interesting to see if empirical evidence exists for it.
I certainly hope your alma mater's choice was based on the the psychosocial implications of accelerated study.
The point about younger graduates perhaps not being as mature emotionally or socially is fair enough. It may or may not lead to poorer professional outcomes/progress. However, even if we assume that emotional or social maturity is independent of experience (ie that at the same age, a given person has the same maturity regardless of whether or not they skipped a year and had another year of uni or work experience behind them), and assuming that emotional or social maturity is most important in professional outcomes/progress, even if they are impeded for progression for one year, that just brings them back to before and they are no worse off (you could also perhaps say that they have earnt one more year of wages too, compared to if they started one year later but weren't held back a year, but I won't go into that).
ReplyDeleteArguably, jumping into uni or work earlier may make them a bit more mature at a slightly higher rate than if they stayed back at school, so in that way, I feel that the advantages may outweigh the disadvantages.
Some people are able to skip many more years and successfully complete PhDs at the same age when others are just completing their first bachelor degree. Compared to what they skip, one year is hardly anything really.