http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ed ... tions.html


Not surprising. Men are more inclined to store useless information and trivia. I was once with a friend and his girlfriend, a teacher, watching Mastermind, and while we both did reasonably at the general knowledge the teacher said that general knowledge was pointless. Amazing that she was a teacher.

I find that surprising.

In my experience, more women seem to remember useless information such as fashions and silly soap opera facts, while men remember the important things like maths, physics and Red Dwarf quotes.

Of course such generalisations are statistical. They apply to populations, not individuals.

Surely it is more important to be able to use a book when required rather than remember what is in it? Use the information when you need to.

But GCSE-level education should be understood by pretty much everyone, and is the sort of basic, fundamental knowledge that should just be known.

Honestly, the first Labour Prime Minister and a synoptic chart are things I would have never known about. I never did GCSE History, so can't answer the PM question. I did GCSE Geography but never learnt about synoptic charts.

It's not just differences in curriculums between now and then but also between examination boards. Example (albeit at a higher level): A-level Physics. A friend at another school did a module on particle physics, whereas we never even touched upon such a thing.

Many people would regard maths, physics and Red Dwarf quotes as useless information. Though useless information depends on what you do and what you regard as important.

I disagree. You should understand it at the time of learning but there is no reason why you must continue to know it. Example: GCSE German and French (I did both). I had learnt French for five years and German for four years before I sat the GCSEs in those subjects. Since then, I have never needed to use them. Hence, I barely remember anything except odd sentences and words.

Unless you continue to use knowledge you have gained, you will forget it. There's only so much information your brain can retain before it discards it.

Red Dwarf quotes are never useless but on the other hand i'd prefer chicken

Are we talking about the ability to retain and recall facts by rote, or the ability to retain and process information depending on the situation? What are goals of GSCE qualifications? Do they reach this?

I did O levels, and then it seemed that the way to get a decent pass was not to process information, but to just recall what you were taught. By the time I got to degree level, the processing of information was far more important. I have no idea how GSCE fits in to all this.

What I do know is that my other half’s school (a primary school) did a parent’s maths evening because the methods taught now are far different to those people my age were taught at school. It wasn’t numeracy, it was more methodology adjustment.

Tbh when it comes to Maths and Science, given that 4 out of 5 teachers probably couldn't answer the GCSE questions, why should the parents be able to?

That is so getting sigged!

It's nice that the study sponsored by Encyclopaedia Britannica managed to get a wee plug in the end of the article



I wonder what they could possibly have had in mind.

I think that it is a little more than simple recall now. Though as concepts parents should be able to understand those.

Oh dear. I wonder how long before Zippy comes up with a Red Dwarf quote to demonstrate how I should not use statistics