The 2023 edition of "Wanwei Middle School Entrance Exam Quick Reference" was published the day before yesterday, and I bought it on the day of its publication and used it in today's exam.
Overall, this year's version of the quick reference is more user-friendly than last year's version, and the improvement can be seen in the following picture.
Evaluation (Main Text)#
I don't have much to say about this book. It has been updated and improved, fulfilling the responsibility of a middle school entrance exam book. What I want to evaluate is the nature of middle school entrance exam books themselves. What do these books bring to students? Why do we have such things? Do they help reduce the burden on students?
As a student, a current middle school entrance exam candidate, I can responsibly say that middle school entrance exam books have not helped me reduce my burden. They only allow me to carry one book, but the effect is not much different from carrying a bunch of other books.
The quick reference is specially made by Wanwei Middle School Entrance Exam for provinces like Jiangxi and Fujian, which are "migrant worker" provinces. To put it bluntly, the exam itself is problematic and not designed to help students learn. For example, it is boring to be asked about "Windows 7 Chinese version" in a back-end development interview. This kind of book is specifically designed to deal with these questions. From this perspective, middle school entrance exam books do not bring any substantial benefits to students, only useless scores.
But at this point, it goes against the original intention of Wanwei Middle School Entrance Exam and other publishers. You are supposed to publish books to reduce the burden on students.
From my perspective - the perspective of a student, these books do not help me study better, and their pricing is outrageous. They cost over 100 RMB each, while the complete set of New Concept English is less than 200 RMB. With the help of the latter, I have self-studied English (and for a long time, I haven't even attended classes at school and still scored high).
If these publishers really want to help students, they should use their resources, their research and development teams of thousands of people, to design a new and more scientific education system, and use their influence to promote it, instead of trying to strengthen students' dependence on their books, reinforce the existing rote learning system, and increase the burden on students year after year.
But from a historical perspective, I will not completely deny this education situation. Although it is unreasonable, in my opinion, it is a stage that must be passed in historical development, just like the progress from classless society to slave society in primitive society. Compared to the real rote learning system, the current situation is indeed better. But this does not mean that there is no need for change. Therefore, deep down, I still dislike this kind of education.
By "The Nanami", March 11th, 2023.
Postscript#
Originally, I didn't plan to publish this negative (and a bunch of such) article. I just wanted it to be my usual outlet for venting. But today, as soon as I went online, I received a big slap in the face.
And I happen to have exams this year.
The purpose of China's education today is no longer to educate people, but to find a legitimate reason to send a portion of people (most people) into factories. This operation not only deprives some people who should have received higher education of the opportunity to be educated, but also makes us, middle school students who are confident in entering high school, more exhausted.
April 14th, 2023