The Ruptured Duck: Tests Tests Tests

Pretty normal week except that the kids were doing tests all day Thursday and Friday. The have a crazy love of tests in this culture. Students write little tests almost every morning and big tests 6 times a year. 4 sets of midterms and two finals, one each semester.

It's harsh but it prepares them for the rest of their lives. Everything has a test here. They write a test to get into Jr High, a test to get into HS and a test to get into University. Once they get out of university they have to write a test to get just about any job with the government. Want to drive a garbage truck, write this test. I even had one of my kindergarten kids miss a day of school cause she was off writing the test to get into elementary school.

The really sad thing is that the tests the write are so pointless. They are purely bases on memorization of useless facts and they are totally arbitrary. An example of the arbitrariness. One of my boys showed me his test from the Taiwanese English teacher.

1. Put the words in order: name, my, tom, is.

What is your name?

My name is Tom. = full marks
Tom is my name. = no marks

Another example is the test for a drivers license. There is a written test and driving test. The driving test is easy but the written is really hard, but only for foreigners cause we foolishly expect the test to be about driving. Here are a couple of the questions that caught me off guard when I failed the test. :(

74. When carrying out registration procedures for stop riding the motor cycle, the stop riding term can not exceed.
(1) 6 months (2) one year (3) three months.

79. Motorcycles using cell phones while riding on the road.
They will be fined to (1) 1000NT (2) 1500NT (3) 2000 NT

Now you may be wondering why I have the exact questions. That's because I now have the study guide. Now a Taiwanese study guide is a bit different than a Canadian one. In a Canadian guide you would find all sorts of useful information about driving and road safety. You would have to figure out what was important and study that. A Taiwanese guide is just a list of 1000 questions and the correct answers. No need to understand anything just remember that the correct response to question 500 is (b)

Of course some of the questions are quite amusing. Here are a few of my favorites from the "Driver's Morals Multiple Choice" section.

6. A motorcyclist follows traffic rules because (1) he is afraid of being punished (2) he has a sense of responsibility, honor and safety. (3) there is someone to supervise him.

10. If a motorcyclist wants to be honored, happy, safe on traffic, he should (1) have a sense of morality and follow the laws. (2) have good riding skills. (3) not smoke and drink.

And my personal favorite from "Drivers Morals True/False"