[Lauren]

I agree with you, Ash, a lot of Britain's exam systems are centered around learning you facts, facts and more facts. In lesson time you are prepared for this ONE exam, given information for just this one exam - and although this is teaching one sense - it's main purpose is to prepare us to sit one single exam.

There's plenty of people I know that can learn pages and pages of writing and simply scribble it all onto a page in the exam, without understanding a word of it - and I don't think that this is actually teaching them, because if they are then asked to explain what they have written they're unable to.

Personally, I find it hard to remember things and I really need to understand something before I can put it into words, and I find that people who don't understand it but have a photographic memory can just spill it all out back onto the page and do better.