考试与工作脱节

It's tempting to conclude that the exam system is wrong to inflict such pain for so little gain. It is not as if we remember the facts that we stuffed into our heads at the very last minute. On the evening of my finals, I could probably have told you about Wittgenstein's view on the indeterminacy of translation but now all I can recall is the picture that was a duck one minute and a rabbit the next.
我们很容易得出这样一个结论：考试制度造成如此大的痛苦，但换来的收获如此之少，证明这种制度存在问题。我们根本记不住在最后一分钟硬塞进脑子里的那些事实。在期末考试前一天晚上，我或许还能够告诉你维特根斯坦(Wittgenstein)有关翻译不准确性的看法，但现在，我只记得起那幅上一分钟还是鸭子，下一分钟却变成兔子的图片。

Yet that isn't why it's all a waste. Even though I've forgotten what I learnt, I am still proud to have once known it. This seems a less shameful state of ignorance than never having known it at all.
不过，这并不是考试制度一无是处的原因所在。尽管我曾学过的东西都忘记了，但我还是以曾经知道为傲。与从来不知道相比，这种无知状态似乎不那么可耻。

The real problem with the exam system is that it teaches lessons about work itself that you need to unlearn pretty smartly if you want to get ahead in business.
考试制度的真正问题在于，它教授了一些关于工作本身的错误知识，如果你想在商界中获得成功，你就必须很快忘却这些东西。

First, it teaches you that there is a fairly straightforward relationship between effort and result. In exams, if you work very, very hard in the evenings you are going to do an awful lot better than if you spend your evenings in the pub. In most office life, this is not true. The relationship between effort and reward is much more complicated.
首先，它灌输给你一个概念，即付出与成绩是完全对等的。就考试而言，如果你每天晚上都非常、非常认真地复习，而不是泡在酒吧里，那么你的成绩就会好很多。但在大多数办公室生活中，情况并非如此。付出与回报之间的关系要复杂得多。