Quote Originally Posted by Mandylion
I think everyone needs the experience of at almost failing at some point. Doesn't have to be on a timetable, but before you get out of college or high school, you should have to look down into that abyss and find out exactly what you are made of. If you fall in, people are still there to help you out. If you get out in the real world on your own and don't know how to either stay away from failure or fix the problem, you are in for a very rude lesson...
I completely agree with that. That's kind of what happened to me last year, and now I have to deal with it. I'm in the US, and with my school system they don't make you redo a whole year, only the few classes that you fail.
At my school they basically do whatever they want, but they are a private school so they can. The state doesn't give us many guidelines about curriculum.

In regards to "exam hell," it seems like a waste of time to me. From what I have read on multiple accounts, when a Japanese person goes to get a job, the employer rarely cares about college education. In fact, the Japanese system does not really entice people to aim for higher education so much, and less thn a third of them go on to university. So why do all the work when you don't have to?


A conversation in the book Dogs and Deamons, Chapter 12:

"If Japan's schools are so very good, why do you have to spend so much money for extra education?"

"The children do not learn what they need to know to pass the exams for university in public schools."

"Well, what are they doingin school, then?"

"They are learning to be Japanese."