<p>Prompt: What is your view of the claim that knowing facts isn’t as important as understanding ideas and concepts?</p>
<pre><code> If memorization and understanding were head to head in a fight, understanding would win. It is one thing to memorize a lot of facts and another to understand them. You can get by further in life and be more successful if key concepts and ideas are understood. My own personal experience in two science courses can support my idea.
I was in eighth grade when I took Earth Science. I was under the impression that all the facts in the curriculum had to be memorized. This took a lot of time out of my day, but I knew every little fact nonetheless. When I took the regents I received a 93. That was a very high grade and I thought that I was using the right technique in my studies.
I was wrong. In the 11th grade, I took Physics. Instead of memorizing a lot of facts I tried to understand the concepts and that way try to be successful in the course. I spent less time of my day memorizing facts and I was able to pull off a 97 on my Physics regents. I was in the crossroads of a major breakthrough. Was it a coincidence that I scored a high grade in Physics or was it something else? I think that the latter is true. My understanding of the subject matter allowed me to derive or figure out any fact that I would have known by memorizing.
A lot of people may ask well why is this important? This idea applies to this test itself. People who spend countless hours memorizing the test. Such as reading a lot of critical reading passages not for practice but in an effort to memorize material, just in case it appears on the test. There is a second type of student who learns the skills tested on this test by reading books and taking practice tests to get a feeling for the test. The second student most of the time receives the higher score.
Even today’s employers realize this fact. They hire people who are able to think outside of the box instead of memorizing every little detail. These people were able to do this because they realized that it is much more important to understand ideas and concepts than knowing facts. The first can lead to the second but it is not true vice-versa. Bill Gates is a good example of a person who understood the idea of inventing Windows and was able to know the facts that led to the invention afterward. If he had only known the facts, but did not understand the idea, Windows might not have been created. Without Windows, the world would have been a lot different than it is today. All because of a little fact that understanding is better than knowing.
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