- NEW!
by Anonymous on November 21st, 2009
How would a student at either institution "know" what any professor wanted to read? Are the kids able to read minds, nowadays?
+5
What is an accredited school or college?
by Answerbag Staff on July 16th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
Do I need an associate degree from college before I can get a bachelor's?
by Answerbag Staff on July 4th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
i have a college GPA of 1.7 "it my first year" and i want to attend a better college that has housing do u think i can transfer or not?
by THENETWORKA on November 29th, 2011
| 2 people like this
How do I apply to colleges online?
by Answerbag Staff on May 23rd, 2010
| 1 person likes this
University of California professor can no longer demand snacks from students taking classes as he has for 39 years. Is this fair?
by calicorey on November 23rd, 2011
| 1 person likes this
You're reading Does a certificate from Harvard or Oxford really confer upon the graduate a genuine streak of intellectual brilliance, or is it merely a reward for being able to "get inside" the examiner's head and writing what they know they wanted to read?
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Comments
lol, fair point, I suppose - though that doesn't mean I withdraw my original question. The argument still stands for a superlative ability to internalise the expectations of the professor on the basis of what the student has been taught in that professor's lectures. Rather than conferring on the student a heightened level of academic intelligence, the certificate could be said to more accurately attest to their intelligences of ANTICIPATION - that is, a tactical intelligence, not a creative or interpretative one, unless the interpretative aspect is taken to relate not to the material content of the subject, but to the expectations held by the professor on the BASIS of that material content, as it has been selected by him. It could all be a matter of pandering to his biases. And remember also that in the red-brick establishments of higher education, professors enjoy a great deal more autonomy when it comes to coordinating the syllabus than those who teach A-Levels, for example.
by mumpsimus on November 21st, 2009
Also, if you reject the idea, why did you award it a rating of +5?
by mumpsimus on November 21st, 2009
I awarded it a +5 because I was NOT "rejecting" it at all. My response was a request for an explanation relative to the question, or the "logic" (if any) behind the assumption that any student could possibly "know" what goes on within the confines of another person's mind.
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I was seeking clarification. If I was rejecting the question totally, I would not even bother answering it.
by Anonymous on November 21st, 2009
Ah, understood lol. I'm new to Answerbag so I'm still learning some of the formalities. Thanks for your rating. I hope somewhere in my muddle of a comment, you found the clarification you sought!
by mumpsimus on November 21st, 2009
I did, and I'm full of grates for it.
by Anonymous on November 21st, 2009
Thanks very much. Are you a Harvard student yourself? I'm not, lol - hence the scepticism of my original question (and I'm also English, which is why I spell "scepticism" with a "c", not a "k").
by mumpsimus on November 21st, 2009
In the USA, "English" is the language, and "British" is the nationality.
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When I attended elementary school in my former home town of Davenport, Iowa, we had a new student in our midst from St. George, NB, Canada. I was very proud of our teacher in his first class with us, because she always marked his spelling papers correct, when he would spell words like "honour" or "colour," because they were indeed correct in the DOC and the UK, even though they were technically incorrect in the USA.
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I did go to Harvard Law School in the early 1970s. How did you know?
by Anonymous on November 21st, 2009