I hated just that when i took my cisco courses - all test were based on choices checkboxes and such.
for the entry skills at school that may be appropriate.
But the first time you are outside the Lab, and trying the same thing at gome with different hardware and software, you are SOOO FFF.
It currently torpedoes me every time i have to underatsnd a customer's Network setup on the phone.
The Customer, no matter if man or woman, or elderly person of any gender describes me the setup, i can fill in sime blanks.
I know the basics. I know from drill (2 years... not so long) how things should be.
But they are not.
IT, on my level has turned from a flowchart into a Caleidoscope.
Drill and repeating helped me blindly do the basics.
However, elements like
"keep at it, get back to it, try again and again and again, till you solve the puzzle"
can not be practiced at work, as i have 5 minutes per customer.
Putting the finger on the problem(s) of hardware, software, within 300 seconds is an impossible task.
It is like being given a Chess board in mid-game, and figure out a victory in a ridiculously limited amount of time.
and if you fail, you get a next try - but the game board is a different one.
I would say it is very, very hard to prepare people for the Productive world of today.
and i think It will become more and more important to Pimp up the Student's mental capacity, the algorythms and functioning methods, their CPU and RAM, instead of
ONLY loading their Hard drives full of History and theory articles.
WTFFFFF! do i remember of that bastard french teacher that banged me with the finer points of french
participe passé.
Or that Alcoholic Biology teacher that expected a mental copypaste of an Article on how the Human lung works.
Neither memorizing the Data nor the principle of repetition, following a mental chart has helped me beyond School.
Because School is one thing, and the job is an entirely different Beast.
The only thing that remains is:
Whatever you fail to do now, do not despair, all your failures will make you better - if you put all your mind and muscle to it.
I slowly see how that applies.