I am in the middle of marking exams right now and I have just come across an example of “rote learning” that I think is pretty funny. I advised my students, when studying for their exams, that along with the textbook they needed to study the powerpoint point slides we had used in class during the semester.

In answer to a question asking for a comparison of the uses of hubs, switches and routers in networking systems I received this answer on a hand written answer sheet from two students:

“Hub: The central device in previous slide.”

The rest of the answer was almost literaly a repeat of the classroom presentation slide but apparently with very little (or no) attempt made to decipher the actual meaning.