Consequence of exam-orientated culture.

I'm currently tackling Cambridge International A-Level program. So far the syllabus of text books doesn't really pose much trouble to me but I had soon found out what I have to surmount - laboratory sessions. I'm utterly clueless in handling the apparatus in appropriate way. I'm puzzled to select the suitable one before proceeding to the next procedure if the list of apparatus required isn't provided. Well, I attribute it as a part of consequence of practising an exam-orientated culture in my previous school life.

Honestly I've forgotten how many experiments I had conducted during my high-school period, but I can tell you experiment wasn't something significant to us at that time, just because there wouldn't be any practical test in SPM. We could memorise everything written in black and white in order to tackle the question concerning experiment planning, without having the urge to grasp more. Every class of my secondary school comprised of more than 45 students which in turns results in an insufficient capacity of science laboratory. We had been going through almost every experiment by our imagination, or sometime we were lucky enough to observe the demonstration by our teachers in front of us only.

I have to accept the fact that regurgitating the particular reference books would in turn ensure us to score well in papers but it seemingly doesn't benefit us in the same way whenever it is the time to put it into practice. To traverse into medical field, we should have acquired the proficiency in this part. So I come to here, my new college, equipped with merely the scarce experience in this part, hoping that I would be able to polish my practical skill other than struggling for an improvement in linguistic skill during the short period I'm going to stay here :)