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She tried 960 times

nytimes.com

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Re: She tried 960 times

#2

Post by yafujifide »

Perhaps she didn't realize that she could study for the test and then pass it after one try. According to the article she has almost no formal education, so that seems possible: "It was not until she turned 15 that she joined a formal school as a fourth grader. But her schooling ended there a few years later."

Re: She tried 960 times

#3

Post by yafujifide »

yafujifide wrote: post #2

Perhaps she didn't realize that she could study for the test and then pass it after one try. According to the article she has almost no formal education, so that seems possible: "It was not until she turned 15 that she joined a formal school as a fourth grader. But her schooling ended there a few years later."

I spoke too soon. On the second page, the article says she did study, but did so "phonetically" and thus didn't understand what she was studying.

Re: She tried 960 times

#4

Post by lars512 »

yafujifide wrote: post #2

Perhaps she didn't realize that she could study for the test and then pass it after one try. According to the article she has almost no formal education, so that seems possible: "It was not until she turned 15 that she joined a formal school as a fourth grader. But her schooling ended there a few years later."

Bingo. She didn't have the formal education, and was basically rote-memorizing everying:

"What she was essentially doing while studying alone was memorizing as many questions — with their answers — as possible without always knowing what they were all about."

It's surprising that she didn't end up remembering by heart all possible test answers by then. It's also sad because, if she had asked an instructor politely to explain one complex traffic word for her each day, she would have reached the understanding she needed to pass the test far sooner. Then again, it sounds like she treated it like a hobby. If she was having fun, who's to stop her?

Re: She tried 960 times

#8

Post by ck2 »

She tried the WRITTEN test 960 times.

She passed the driving test in 4 tries which is probably like the average american teenager these days.

At $5 a pop though, she could have hired some personal tutors.

Re: She tried 960 times

#9

Post by petercooper »

yafujifide wrote: post #3
yafujifide wrote: post #2

Perhaps she didn't realize that she could study for the test and then pass it after one try. According to the article she has almost no formal education, so that seems possible: "It was not until she turned 15 that she joined a formal school as a fourth grader. But her schooling ended there a few years later."

I spoke too soon. On the second page, the article says she did study, but did so "phonetically" and thus didn't understand what she was studying.

This reminds me of something: I saw a documentary about championship Scrabble players and a lot of them aren't English speakers or even Latin alphabet language speakers. They treat Scrabble as a visual pattern game rather than a verbal one.
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