You are always precisely pointing toward the core of academic problems, very impressive question, thank you very much our respected colleague Dr. Raid.

I think you have firstly specify about which region are asking? If you meant Iraqi students, then I can not list the huge number of the affecting reasons!! In general as per your excellent experience, teaching process is an accumulated procedure and summation of knowledge starting from the first phase of education, so any variation in these elementary stages will surly accumulates damage(s). I heard a principal scientist one day saying that " Nine of tenth of education is encouragement", hence, I recommend to rise this international logo in our country to get best results.

By the way this phenomenon is happening not only in your college, never but in other engineering colleges.

Regards,

Emad

I do not know these tests, but I think that standardized tests are not really a good measure of overall ability.  Plus some students have better study habits than others, some are more interested in having fun.  It is not surprising to me that students in teh same academic program progress at different paces.

Every student learning styles  are different in most of the schools to get good grades student memorize the facts or knowledge with exact words written  not learned or written in their own words, teachers and school managment is responsible for it because every student have different level of learning, writting and explaining but if teacher only accepts exact words of books, notes then student try to memorize the exact words theory not how they understood or explain.

Many schools don't show  interest in how  students  are learning or explaining in their own words but they more focus on Higher grades for  everystudent by just making them learn exact written words from notes and books. Thats why their grades are same but their level of knowledge is not same.

Dear Zoha Agha,

   Thank you for your valuable response.  You focus on one type of questions in the exam for students: what?. Which needs  just memory and this depends mainly on how much the student  read? and how his memory is? This little bit is true about your answer. Definitely there are other questions which need integration of the knowledge and these types of questions can differentiate well among students. Anyhow whatever the questions are? The levels of the students are different!. The second issue which I would like to mention here: when the amount of knowledge under the exam is more, the levels of the students can differentiate more.

Best regards

Raid  

I would be more surprised were they all to leave at the same level. Many students can achieve good results at school without necessarily understanding the material. As they progress upwards through different educational levels hard work alone is not sufficient to reach the top where deep intellectual understanding, which is often not required for success at school level, becomes an ever more important component of the learning process.

Dear Raid, thank you for the question. My experience is the same, they enter the Faculty with the same scores and then after the first year at Faculty they start to show very different results. I agree with all the mentioned in the previous answer. In my opinion that depends a lot on the socioeconomic situation of the state, i.e. the occurrences in the  state affects this situation. It is questionable is the scores they enter the Faculty with the real scores of their previous knowledge. There is a lot of pressure on the teachers to grade the students in the high schools higher due to various reasons. The quality of the knowledge they gain in the high schools is also important. the role of the state, also. If the government for example propagate that everybody should have a higher education and then advertise this on the TV everyday, it will shape the students' opinion. I will mention the private universities also where students where students have to pay fee, there are the state universities which struggles for every student regarding their policy etc. Many factors determines their scores. I believe that the scores of many students in the previous education does not reflect their real achievement.  

Hi 

This case may happen because the students may differ in their achievements. Some of them stay in the same previous level of reading, others being slow according to their understanding of the college life. 

Liqaa 

Hi,

It is a great questions. The main cause is students are raised in structured domains in schools. K-12 schools are depending on structured learning were students became dependent learners. Direct teaching method and knowledge delivery in school depends mainly on educators. Also the types of problems that the students are required to solve are very limited in it. When students enter collages and universities they start to be exposed to less structured domains. Students are required to be independent learners. The struggle starts because they are not used to it. Also, the types of problems and tasks that are required from them is different. I think this is the main reasons why the students levels are affected.

I think some college students work much harder than others. In high school, it's possible to do well simply on intelligence without really learning how to study and master large bodies of material. So two students with the same IQ, one with a high and one with a low work ethic, will perform very differently in college.

Hello Doctor

From my personal opinion, I do not think high school is a measure of student competence

Greetings

I think the reason is that their ambitions are different but their goal is one

Regards, Azzam

Well Prof , student maturity is one major factor . In the late teens too they are not fully grown up as yet . I read somewhere between the ages of 22-26 is the growth of intellect .

Einstein's first paper was when he was around 22 or 23 years old.

So I would let them be who they are no force less rules ...

I believe that level differences in learning are not a problem at all, but are simply an example of "biodiversity". In this case, this "biodiversity" is defined by: physical (hereditary) factors, previous school history, sympathy / empathy with study matter and with professor, physical and psychological environmental factors, economic factors, sentimental serenity, physical and psychological fitness, and perhaps some other contingent and relative factors to the nation.

Design of teaching and method of learning in university are differ, this may create variation in level of medical students, in addition income of family may also create variation because student with high income is easily purchase many reference to his studies

hello

Each student has a different level of intelligence and when entering the college for new students will notice a significant change in the method of study and teaching and mixing between students and students and these things cause different levels

regards

Each student has a personal motive for getting in the university and the long term goals affect the day to day judgments where grit plays an important role. Moreover, it is rightly said that you are a reflection of the five people you surround yourself with. So the environment matters more than we expect.

Dear Raid, Thanks a lot for the question. Really the level in the secondary school is definitely different than the level in the college whatever the specialty is, also we must take the Circumstances(which is a controlling factor) of the student into account. This is the reason for different levels. Good luck

Individual differences among students are important factors in determining the student's ability to quickly understand and assimilate. It is noted that when students move to study in colleges, their understand may decline and their level of education is lower than it was previously due to many reasons, including the study of students in colleges outside their homes, Or in other homes away from the parents and thus changing the atmosphere of the study entrusted to his responsibilities and growing away from his family of these factors and there are psychological and social factors and the student may be exposed to envy of the eye as a result of high grades in the secondary stage reflected tuberculosis Of his health condition and psychological

In the transition from school to university, many changes imposed on us, the nature of the environment, study, community and students, as well as the importance of undergraduate that reflect human maturity and contribute to the formation of his personality, and the development of its objectives, and make him a human being active in the community. The student in the secondary level had a specific goal of reaching the university and getting the specialization, so he is exerting all his efforts and supporting his family to achieve the goal. Now he became in a university and got the specialty, what remained for him ,only to study for the completion of the university, here became a psychological incentive and self-weakness, and decreased the family's support for him relatively. This situation can not be generalized, but it is the reality we live in. It is the human nature, the enthusiasm of a man, when he gets his desires.

Thank you for the question There are many reasons for different levels of students, including individual differences among students, including the student's desire in college and specialization, including student ambition, etc. Greetings

I am with what colleagues said, and I add The students of one discipline are not always at one level but with the same marks range for acceptance, as a result of the baccalaureate examination (Because they are making an effort) is futile in favor of students and their wishes and in the differentiation between their real levels. Therefore, the differences appear for several reasons, including the rapid adaptation to the differences between the system of study and examinations in the colleges, and the system of study and examinations in the previous stages, competition, including the lack of good preparation for the definition of the return of each faculty and specializationو where students are surprised that what they chose not as they imagined

Aside intellectual excellence, distraction is a major issue. When they come into the University, there is a 'form' of freedom. Not all students are able to manage this freedom, distractions and peer pressure well and it affects their performances.

I agree with Ameena Barakat opinion. Thank you.

In addition in University, there is a skill teacher who is specified in subject and give different references for one subject, these different reference for one subject created confused for the subject which lead to variations in level of students

اختلاف مستوياتهم يرجع الى اختلاف توجهاتهم العلمية والفكرية والتباين في التقبل الجاد لطلب المعلومة وتراكم الضغوطات النفسية والاجتماعية وغيرها على ذهن الطالب

I am fully agree with the answer added by Dr, Ameena Barakat .. Best regards ,, Jawad Ali

Very good response by everybody because the background of their secondary school differs some finished from private schools while other from public schools.

I agree with Prof. Ian Abrahams; there so many methods students employ to learning. At one level a method may work; at another level that same method may not work. Students who vary their style of learning survive at different levels of their academic life.

Hi Dear.

This may be due to the nature of students 'interaction with the requirements of their academic specialization and the type of courses that may not be in line with students' interests.

I am unsure that they are at the 'same level' to begin with. They are at the 'same metrics' level (based on the test we administer for addmission, or based on the gpa's during high school), but metrics are....well, they are metrics...

Part of the challenge is rewarding intelligence (as shown above) instead of effort in the teaching-learning process. Dr. Dweck's mind set theory shows us that when students are rewarded for intelligence (e.g. Wow! You are very smart) as opposed to effort (e.g., I can see you put a lot of effort into this answer), they do not challenge themselves when given more difficult problems as done in Medical School. See this link for more insight on this theory: https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/

Best regards,

Debra

There could be many reasons in different colleges.

Family and the environment play a role. Also, some are better able to handle pressure than others.

The reasons of variability in performance may be, due to:

1) opted medical studies by chance/ by force or by choice

2) ability to handle the transitional environment from secondary college to UNIVERSITY

3) how much paying attention in an early stage of their professional degree program

4) how much seriously focused on their career, lab assignments, etc

5) ability to integrate knowledge of biological sciences with human health.

Warm Regards,

Jahangir

Because most students are studying seriously in the preparatory stage to achieve their goal of getting a good college and then to think of excellence as a college

Getting admission is a formality, based on limited criteria like grading and minimum marks/ entrance test etc.

STUDENTS from different backgrounds and colleges come to join a university college.

their IQ levels are different, their interest in subject are different the effort they put is different, their grasping is different....their approach to understand the subject and putting in writing to pass the exam is different....so accordingly their knowledge will differ/ performance will differ.

Teen age Maturity play a important role in the performance of students when they enter in college from schooling .

Many student improve their performance where other deteriorate their performance

I agree with Dr. Ian Abrahams

Yes this assures that learning in Iraq is in danger. Best regards

This is a good forum to learn from

So many factors are actually responsible for this. Intellectual prowess, ambition, emotion, family background, ability to cope with challenges, initiatives and lots more.

I think, one of the reasons is the large gap between the education systems before and after the university entrance. This happens in developing countries that have unstable education systems

Even though they are studying the same course, their educational, cultural, financial back ground, interests and vierws are different. So this may be reason for ........

Most students registered in the college not according to their wishes and interest, but according to the official system of students distribution, besides the natural differences among individuals in knowledge maturation, because our system of education focus on read and remember, and don't give a role for discussion, conclusions and manage the problems.

Regards

Definitely, we have different exposure in and out of school. Peer influence, parental care, food consume, likes and dislikes, environmental influence all has a great impact in wisdom and knowledge acquired.

There is a facilitating skills that each students understands, some thrive well through audio-visual method, while some prefer visual aids while some are good and perfect on audio aids. So with this, each student will excel in whatever methods used and suitable.

Dr Nada and Dr Raid

Unfortunately, it is applicable for Arab countries !