18 Reasons Why The Tawjihi is Wrong
Written by Saned Raouf
As June 16th is approaching, around 120,000 students will be heading to the overheated test halls in different schools around the Kingdom to sit for the Tawjihi exam. The Tawjihi, which consists of 14 exams in every subject you can think of, not only exhausts the brains of young people, but also limits motivation and creativity. So the question is why is Tawjihi wrong?
1. Tawjihi depends on how much you memorize, not how much you understand. Let’s take the Social Studies book for example. Besides the many factual errors in the book, students have to mechanically memorize 220 pages of outdated and boring information that has no practical use whatsoever. Topics include memorizing what every single King of Jordan achieved in every aspect of life. The funny thing is that many of them had done the same thing, but is phrased differently in the book, and if you happen to know the “general idea” of what’s going on, say goodbye to 2 or more points. Another concrete example is the religion book. The religion book is just another 300 or so pages that have to be memorized word-by-word. Many of the subjects are about Islamic Jurisprudence and other topics that will never be applied in every day life.
2. Tawjihi shows how little you know. Math is one of the most feared and dreaded exams in the Tawjihi. Tawjihi math covers University Calculus I and II, a good thing in my opinion. The bad thing about it is how it’s mechanically taught, step by step, without seeking to make the student understand the concepts. Tawjihi question-makers make sure no one gets a full mark, and if it happens, your math teacher(s) will remember you forever.
3. Tawjihi Questions are sometimes WRONG. It’s funny how many times your math or chemistry teacher points out a wrong question in the 1997, 2002 or some other exam sheet saying that the person who wrote that question is incapable of simple arithmetic.
4. Tawjihi makes you unsatisfied with what you’ve got. Parents force their Tawjihi-to-be to start studying the summer before Tawjihi. Not only that, they make sure you are taught by the best teachers in Amman. Of course, that is not an easy task. Your mom or dad has call roughly a million people for a “wasta” to get a spot in the class that has been closed since April. In September, students make sure they have “doseyat” from every single teacher in Amman in every single subject. I think they go with the proverb, “the more the merrier.”
5. Tawjihi makes you study physics. Now, to be honest, physics was never my favorite subject and I have no interest in studying it in university. Then, the important question is, why do I have to study it? Tawjihi makes you study every discipline ever created on Earth? Why? Why can’t the students choose subjects they are interested in and want to study in the future?
6. Tawjihi starts late, and finishes WAY too late. Tawjihi usually starts mid June and ends early July. It really hurts to see your younger sibling done one month before you while you’re holding that chunky Religion book trying to figure out why in Earth you are destined to memorize it.
7. The Tawjihi schedule is not organized. Why should there be half a day before Social Studies and 4 days before 3rd grade English? Not only that, it’s just an amazing experience when your exam is on the first day after Eid. I mean, that just HURTS.
8. Tawjihi Kills. Literally. Many students have had heart attacks, health problems, Nescafe addictions, and sometimes it even reaches suicide. The freshmen 15 will be nothing compared to the Tawjihi hundred which you’ll struggle to get rid of.
9. Tawjihi and family. If you happen to be the eldest, you sure have to show the whole extended family you are the smartest and keep the family’s dignity (or line for that matter.) If you have other siblings who have gone through the same misery, you have to get higher, even if that means getting 98%.
10. Tawjihi introduces new favorite study places. Forget about the library, the toilet – according to many students – is the new best studying place; there you get to do your thing, study, and, consequently, save some time.
11. Some Tawjihi paper correctors have no work ethics. Many correctors are unqualified to correct papers of a certain subject. For example, geology teachers might be correcting biology papers. It’s even worse when a computer science teacher corrects English papers. Moreover, many correctors are nonchalant during corrections.
12. Tawjihi hall conditions are terrible. Depending if the tests are in winter or summer, its either too hot to think, or too cold to move.
13. Tawjihi defines you. The grade you get will haunt you for the rest of your live. You’ll be 70 and your grandchild will ask you about that number. You might lose employment because of that number even if you’ve excelled in your higher education. Reality bites.
14. Tawjihi is against non-Jordanians. Has anyone noticed that all number one students are Jordanian? Is it me, or do all Jordanians happen to be smart? Also, authorities will never hesitate to take off points from you to let the son or daughter of an Army member to be number one in school.
15. Tawjihi determines your future. The worst drawback of Tawjihi is that it controls your future. Do you aspire to be a doctor but happen to be average at Math or Geology? Well, tough luck, you better start working on that, that is, if it’s workable.
16. “Tawjihi is the best system around.” Well, at least that’s what Toukan claims. Ironic how his son, and many members of the Toukan family, are studying or have studied at the Amman Baccalaureate School (which teaches the IB curriculum) and are now completing their education in the States.
17. Tawjihi does not teach you English, it makes you memorize words. You should also take a look at the definitions of the words in the glossary. Your second grade brother would be ashamed.
18. The Tawjihi aftermath. When college starts, you’ll either be in the college of your choice, or lamenting your luck in some other college. Either way, you’ll have zero motivation and maybe even less creativity left.
Saned Raouf is a up-and-coming sophomore at Yale University and vice-president of the Arab Students Association. He grew up in the United States and Jordan and graduated from the Jubilee School in Amman after taking the Tawjihi. Contact Saned here.
TAWJIHI is the same all over the middle east
This is very true. This 2-year system for tawjeehi is horrifying,students develop mental and physical illneses due to tawjeehi. Still, finding an alternative wouldn’t be that easy , needs alot of studying before applying a new system. What’s important is to initiate such a step.
“Tawjihi makes you study physics”
Sorry, but I think this post isn’t completely objective, if you don’t like physics that’s your problem, every student in the scientific stream must study physics, it’s obvious.
And, personally, I do not agree with you on many points, but since my objections may be too long, it’s probable I will post them on my blog..
I am talking here about my experiences and some general concerns. Physics is one of the most hated subjects on the Tawjihi. To make it more general, I could’ve said “Tawjihi makes you study subjects you might not be intereted in and/or might not benefit you in your studies in the future”
Hope that clarified your concerns.
Tawjihi is part of our stupid Agenda, and a strategy to ensure that all Arabs will stay behindhand for good. changing this system is not easy at all after all those years, and honestly we never bothered ourselves to fight for it or change it, i think we deserve Tawjihi!
Thank you so much for this post. Many of the points you mentioned spoke for me…
Tawjihi kills young people’s creativity: at the beginning of the year, the first thing you’re taught is that it’s best not to rephrase. As much as you can, memorize the words in front of you exactly as they are… even if they make no sense at all. Even if the nearest sciene textbook will prove them wrong. In one biology “wazara” exam, a student lost 2 marks because he mentioned uses of Ultrasound technology that were not mentioned in the book. “There was a debate among the correctors, but we finally decided to mark the answer incorrect,” our teacher explained. “Students must learn to stick to the textbook. We can’t “open the door” for such freedom- it will make everything more difficult.”
Tawjihi teaches dependence: if your teachers are good, they will provide you with everything: questions from all kinds of sources along with their answers, past-papers, “dosiyyat” with further explanation, even a study schedule for you to follow! All you have to do is swallow what’s already been chewed for you. Every question is answered before giving you the chance to be curious to ask it. The purpose of this, of course, is saving time. To save time, we will not discuss the questions together, but here’s a sheet of model answers for you to learn at home. University is a different world, of course, where lectures are (supposedly) nothing but headlines of what you’re supposed to go further into yourself. Students go through a really hard time dealing with the new system, and many graduate from university without learning the concept of self-learning or doing any basic research. It’s shockingly true. We’re so used to dependence that we even invent ways to go back there: student sheets and powerpoint slides sold in the bookshop across uni, which eventually become our reference. Yes, I’m telling you, you could graduate from JU and score fours without opening a single textbook.
It defines you, it determines your future: these affected me in the opposite direction. For while my heart was with the arts, ranking second in the scientific stream put tremendous pressure on me to reconsider, and I had to give in, making the path towards what I really want to do longer and much more complicated.
Tawjihi did teach me something… it taught me time-management. It taught me patience and self-control. It taught me creative ways of motivating myself, of giving sense to the nonsensical and reason to the unacceptable. It forced me to change my mind so I could swallow everything and not feel like a victim. And that can be dangerous.
The system needs to be changed… but every time I think about it, I reach the same conclusion: as long as university admission is based on your tawjihi result, the pressure will never go away. As long as the mark determines where we end up, we will continue to worship and pursue the mark. We will do everything to get the mark. We will learn chemistry like we do poetry, we will agree to put our creative minds to sleep, we will consume huge amounts of coffee and solve all math questions written in the past 15 years to guarantee we don’t lose the mark. Efforts are constantly made to make the system better, the books are updated, but we will never get anywhere as long as the attitude towards learning is unchanged- as long as it’s a means, never a purpose in itself. Unless teachers believe in their responsibility towards the potential lying within their classroom, the generations will continue to be fed the same bitter nonsense that makes sure they will stay asleep all their lives.
[...] general secondary certificate (Tawjihi). Despite the fact that I agree with a large part of Saned’s post, especially the social pressure and the necessity of changing the system, there were some points I [...]
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[...] article was written in response to Saned Raouf’s article on 7iber.com about the [...]
The problem about tawhiji isn’t just it gives you a headache or even temporary mental illness but at the same time it determines your future. I for example have a true story that I would like to share with all readers. I have a relative that always dreamed of majoring in engineer: however, he achieve three points lower the accepted grade for that particular major. Due to the fact he achieved lower than the accepted grade for that major, his entire dream or future he dreamed of was destroyed and put down the drain. An entire semester already passed by and he’s still undecided. It really hurts when you dream of something your entire life and than one stupid test destroys everything.
Time to switch to IGCSE.
You know its funny…. let me tell you my story… in 1992 I failed the twjihi, so I went to CA, there I took some classes got my GED got into UCI got my electrical engineering degree got my masters in nuclear engineering from UCLA, in 2000 started working with NASA , and now I hold a scientist senior positions over there… matter affect I am the youngest senior over there and I hold a six figure check …lets just say my house in Laguna hills is worth 4 million dollar and I drive 2007 SL65 and my wife drives a 2005 Ferrari Modena …….that’s not the story what’s funny is a few years back I meet one of my classmates whom he finished the twjihi with me and got 91/100, sadly now he works in a gas station ..you know why cause he was not motivated but I was…..thats why I will never go back to Jordan this dirty city that molest young people from there dream …
yes, Ali. But keep in mind that not everyone has the financial means to travel to Canada. Nevertheless, I salute you for your motivation and where you have reached today.