Stress, Tears, and Tantrums… It’s Exam Time.

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There’s been a pretty negative atmosphere at school during the last week, and there’s one reason why: exam week. It’s the students’ final exams before the end of semester, a time when stress levels peak for pupils and teachers alike. Luckily for us foreign teachers, we are only in charge of one written exam. Apart from that, we’re not too involved in the tests, even the English one. But that doesn’t mean we’re completely removed from the drama when it’s exam season. During our time at the school we’ve seen students crying, parents crying, arguments, breakdowns and complaints.

I’ve written about education in Korea before: that while there is no arguing with the high academic achievements of Korean students, there is just far too much pressure placed upon students which leads to intense stress and misery. And the exam period just reinforces all my beliefs about the faults of the Korean education system.

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First and foremost is obviously the absurd amount of pressure placed upon the students to perform well. My parents always used to say to me ‘as long as you do your best, that’s all you can do’- this is a sentiment which I think all students should be told. Sure, it’s foolish to not work your hardest when you have important tests, but if you try your absolute best and still only manage to gain a low/average mark, then you’ve done all you could do. And in my eyes, punishing a child who has worked to the best of their ability is belittling and harsh. Some people aren’t as academically gifted as others: this is a fact which should be understood and accepted.

But from what I’ve seen in 99% of students, this isn’t the case. Even if they try their hardest, if they study from 8 am to 12 am, if they don’t score well they will suffer the wrath, and even worse, shame, of their parents. And it seems that it is only a very high score which is acceptable; I’ve spoken to students who’ve been distraught about how ‘badly’ they’ve done, when in fact they’ve scored in the 80%  bracket. In my eyes, that’s a pretty admirable result. It’s one thing to be pressured to do well, but it’s another when ‘to do well’ means getting a close to perfect score.

Another thing which I believe has detrimental consequences is the fact that students keep their exam papers afterwards, and are allowed to ask the teachers the correct answers. Why is this a problem? Because it doesn’t allow students to relax after an exam, to actually feel relieved that they’ve finished. Instead, it causes even more stress and worry as they endlessly debate with their friends whether the answer ‘to number 2 was A or B’, and then go to argue with a teacher about the correct answer. I’ve seen it happen so many times- the second the bell goes, the English office is invaded by hyped-up students demanding the correct answers and either cheering or crying when they hear it. They then go home and study the exam paper again, anxiously working out how they performed. When an exam is over, it should be over. Keeping the papers just prolongs and intensifies stress.

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Something I find very strange, and contradictory to everything else exam-related is the attitude of students when they’re actually taking the exam. I have invigilated numerous tests- multiple choice tests, writing tests, less-important 1st/2nd grade tests, and extremely important 3rd grade tests which determine which high school students are accepted into. And one thing I have seen in every case? Students finishing the test in half (or less) of the allowed time and then going to sleep. This behaviour totally goes against all of the stress in the lead up to and aftermath of exams, and I don’t understand it.

When I had tests in school, I would never have dreamed of going to sleep- if you finished early, then you’d check your answers again and again, to make sure you hadn’t made any silly mistakes. In Korea, I invigilated one exam in which after only 5 minutes, 50% of students had finished and gone to sleep. The first time I saw this, I walked round waking up the students, not understanding what was happening and wondering why the teacher in charge wasn’t taking control, and ensuring they were trying their best and checking their answers. Now, I’ve learnt not to bother. But I find it utterly absurd behaviour, especially in a country where there is such importance placed on the exams. How would the parents react if they saw their child give up and go to sleep 10 minutes into an exam? The only way I can understand it is to assume that the students are so tired and stressed from revising, that the minute they consider themselves finished, they can’t bear to go back over the exam, and sleep instead. If this is true, it shows even more how the extremity of exam pressure actually has a negative impact on their performance.

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Finally, I wonder whether the ‘multiple-choice’ style of exams is the best choice. When I first realised that all exams are in this format, I admit that I thought the students had it easy. I would have loved multiple choice, instead of long 3-hour essay-style exams. But now, I’ve read numerous English exams… and in each one, I couldn’t answer some of the questions. The choices are always so ambiguous that there are often a couple of acceptable answers. And what are the consequences? Official complaints from parents when their child doesn’t get a mark which perhaps they deserved. Again, this is something I’ve witnessed again and again. And if foreign teachers find it hard to answer an English multiple-choice question, what chance do the students have?

After the past week, after seeing what chaos the exam season causes in Korea, I just feel sympathy towards the students. I’ve seen one girl crying for 2 hours over 1 mark which she lost, I’ve seen a parent come into school and do the same. My co-teachers have received phone calls on their personal numbers until 11 pm from irate parents who want to discuss their child’s test. It’s too much. Exams are important, yes. Other countries envy Korea’s academic results, yes. But where do we draw a line between enough and too much? How many students will have to suffer depression, anxiety, or in extreme cases even commit suicide before things change?

There has to be balance and perspective. I hope that my students perform well after their tests this week. But I also hope that if they don’t get that top grade they wished for, they don’t spend their evenings berating themselves and in tears. And more importantly, I hope other people around them don’t criticise them either.

 

 

 

 

 

Korean Education: High Grades, High Pressure… Low Happiness?

What is the point of school? To get good grades? To make friends and have fun? To teach you about life and help you to become independent? Well I think that all three things are important. Unfortunately in Korea, I have seen far too much emphasis placed on the first thing: to get good grades. Of course, it’s well known that some of the best academic results in the world come from South Korea, and Western schools could certainly learn a lesson or two from the Koreans about how to gain such success. But what the Korean Education system surely lacks is balance, and the realisation that sometimes, less is more.

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Let’s have a look at an average student’s day: from 8.30 am until 4.30 pm they are in regular school (and have up to 8 classes per day with one hour for lunch). Then after school, they attend a ‘hagwon’ (a private school which 75% of students attend), which has classes until 9 or 10 pm. When do they do find time to do their homework (which is given by both regular schools and hagwons)? When they get home afterwards. The result: students overworked and falling asleep in class, stressed about their workload and therefore not working to their full potential.

“We’re too tired when we study in hagwons”.

“We’re too sleepy too study well”.

“Hagwon homework causes students lots of stress”.

These are things which my students wrote when asked what they think of the education system. Sure, children can go to school from 8 am to 10 pm every day, but is it beneficial if for the majority of that time they aren’t concentrating because they’re too tired or worried about the homework they haven’t had time to finish? Every day I have students falling asleep, or sneakily trying to complete their hagwon homework in my class. Quite often when I ask them what time they went to bed, the answer will be somewhere in the early hours of the morning. 

Even worse is when they have vacation and the majority of students simply go to summer/winter camp, spend extra time studying and still go to their hagwon every day. As a result they get no proper break during the school year. My standard response when I ask them what they did on their vacation? “Study”. And did they enjoy their vacation? “No”. I can honestly say that this is what 90% of my students say.

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More worrying than anything else though, is the ease with which students talk about stress, depression and suicide. I have known children as young as 7 years old talking about how depressed they are when they have tests, crying at how their parents will react to their scores and terrified at the prospect of a report card. According to Korea Real Time, a recent survey showed that half of South Korean teenagers had suicidal thoughts, and one in three called themselves depressed. (http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/03/20/poll-shows-half-of-korean-teenagers-have-suicidal-thoughts/)

Of course, on paper the education system is a success; Korea has continually high test scores and one of the highest percentages of teenagers who continue onto university. No one can dispute the merits of such a system, and it’s true that even the least-motivated and worst-behaved students study hard when it comes to their exams. But what they need is more balance, so that they are more focused and willing to work hard during the entire academic year. It’s true that students may benefit from a couple of extra lessons outside of school if they’re struggling in a specific subject, but going to hagwons for hours every night only makes them exhausted and stressed.

Something which confirms this to me is seeing the best students in our school. By ‘best’ I don’t just mean best in terms of exam scores, I mean the most active students, the happiest, the most engaged and enthusiastic in lessons. These students are invariably the ones who aren’t pushed into ridiculously long hours. Sure, they might go to a hagwon, but not every day and not for so many hours. The result? Brighter students who not only perform better in lessons, but enjoy school because they’re not too tired to focus.

“There is no time to do our hobbies”.

I mentioned before that what the system desperately needs is more balance, and my student’s complaint above reiterates this. Sure, it is important to work hard and achieve good grades, but it’s also important to have hobbies when you’re growing up. Whether it’s music, sports, reading, etc, children should be encouraged to live well-rounded lives. And most importantly, to have independence which sadly, the majority of students lack. Why? Because the focus of their teaching is entirely on getting good grades, being spoon fed to achieve a high score on the all-important mid term exams. Ask a student an academic question, you’ll get the answer in a heartbeat. Ask a student for their opinion and it’s much more difficult for them to give you an answer.

I don’t want to come across as completely against Korean education, because as I said at the start, it evidently has its benefits. I am impressed that students even make it through their 12 hour (or more) days. Even better, 99% of students, even if they don’t show it in class, openly acknowledge and appreciate the importance of school and a good education.

What I think needs to change is the attitude that exams are the be-all and end-all. Not all students are academically gifted, that is a fact not only in Korea but around the world, and those students should be encouraged to excel in other fields, not waste their time in a classroom feeling ever-more helpless and stressed.

Even more importantly, the students should be taught independent thinking; what’s the use of getting into a prestigious university if you can’t cope with looking after yourself and making your own decisions when you’re there?

So what’s the ideal? An education system which pushes you to do your best, of course. But be realistic; doing your best is not working for 12 hours a day with only 50% effort. Doing your best is working for half that time, but with 100% effort. And most importantly, a system in which children feel happy.