TOEFL essay - It is more important for students to understand ideas and concepts than it is for them to learn facts

Could you please read this essay and see if it is on the topic? Thank you so much in advance!

There is no doubt that in many places the method to remember plays an important role in our daily lives. Some say that learning facts in school is crucial for students, others disagree. They may have their own reasons to support their views. If I had to choose one, I would say that understanding ideas and concepts is more important. Here are some reasons.

First and foremost, when you know the ideas and concepts about a thing, you can remember it for a long time, and when you evoke the thing you will know how to explain it to yourself and others. For example, when I give a presentation about the disease in class, I initially focused on the facts and read the papers and I wasn’t sure that my classmates understood well what I talked about because their response wasn’t that good. The next time, I changed the direction and explained what causes this disease and how it affects our bodies. I strived to focus on ideas and concepts so that people could understand them better and when I did this way, I really didn’t need a paper to read because I have concepts and maps about them in my brain.

Another reason worth mentioning is that human being has a limited capacity to memorize everything. You may get a great score if you remember the whole thing in the textbook but are you sure you will remember everything after a month without ideas and concepts? Even one of my professors said not to try to memorize all the diseases and their treatments. She said it is impossible to do it, instead, try to understand how it works and how it happens so we may apply it to any other diseases.

In short, I strongly believe that it is more important for students to understand the ideas and concepts to have a longer memory span and apply the concepts to other things relatively easily. All in all, the importance of ideas and concepts when we learn cannot be overstated for the pursuit of better knowledge and skills in life.

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There is no doubt that the method of remembering plays an important role in our daily lives in many places. Some say that learning facts at school is crucial for students, others disagree. They may have their own reasons to support their views. If I had to choose one, I would say that understanding ideas and concepts is more important. Here are some reasons.

When you know the ideas and concepts of something, you can remember them for a long time, and when you recall them, you know how to explain them to yourself and others. For example, when I give a paper on a disease in class, I first focused on the facts and read the papers, and I wasn’t sure if my classmates understood well what I was talking about, because their reaction wasn’t very good. The next time, I changed direction and explained what causes this disease and how it affects our bodies. I made an effort to focus on ideas and concepts so that people could understand them better, and when I did that, I really didn’t need to read paper because I had concepts and maps about it in my head.

Another reason worth mentioning is that humans have a limited capacity to remember everything. You can get a good grade if you remember everything from the textbook, but are you sure you will remember everything after a month without ideas and concepts? Even one of my professors advised me not to try to memorize all the diseases and their treatments. She said that was impossible, instead try to understand how it works and how it happens so you can apply it to other diseases.

In short, I strongly believe that it is more important for students to understand the ideas and concepts in order to have a longer memory span and be able to apply the concepts to other things relatively easily. All in all, the importance of ideas and concepts in learning cannot be overstated in the pursuit of better knowledge and skills in life.

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Thank you. I always learn a lot from your correction. Thank you so much!

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