Hello, I am working on improving my writing for the CLEP English Comp practice essays. Any discussion of argument weakness and general structure is greatly appreciated, as well as a likely score. Thank you in advance.
Prompt: The old saying, "experience is the best teacher," suggests to some people that they would benefit more from learning on the job or in the world than from continuing their formal education in the school or college classroom
experience is the best teacher
Assignment: Write an essay in which you discuss the relative values of experiential and academic learning. Support your view with specific examples from literature, history, current events, or personal experience.
Experimental vs academic learning
Experiential learning and academic learning are both necessary and valuable to a good education. Experiential learning gives people the opportunity to practice, while academic learning provides the necessary knowledge and saves people a lot of time by allowing them to learn from the experiences of others. Both have advantages and drawbacks, but when they are used together, these two strategies can provide a quality education that prepares and equips people.
Experiential learning, or learning on the job, teaches people how to perform a task by giving them the opportunity to practice. There is great value in this type of learning, because no matter how many books someone has read about a topic or task, they will never be able to do it unless they try to do it and learn by the mistakes they make in their attempts. I experienced this in my Home Economics class. After several lessons in the textbook, we were given opportunities to practice the new skills about which the book had just taught us. Experiential learning is necessary in every skill and profession. People improve with practice. For this reason, experienced professionals are often paid much more than students who have just graduated from college. However, people who only learn experientially can take much more time to learn the same things. They may have to figure everything out on their own, through their own experience, which will be much more limited than that of all people throughout time.
Academic learning also has its share of benefits and drawbacks. Academic learning, or learning from books, offers people the opportunity to learn from the experience of others. Diligent studying and analysis of the errors others have made can help people to avoid those same errors. Throughout history, this has been seen. When people have not studied history, they have only made the same errors that generations before them have made. Good academic learning can save people a lot of time gaining their own experience. It can also give people tips for improvement and prepare them for the experiences they will have when they are out in the real world. However, it can also turn out students who have a lot of knowledge in their head but have not practiced the necessary skills and consequently are unable to perform the tasks required of them.
An analysis of both experiential learning and academic learning leads to the conclusion that both are necessary and valuable, and that learning is best facilitated when these strategies are used together. A balance of experiential learning and academic learning gives people the necessary information to complete a task and the needed experience to perform it well. The value of this is recognized by many educators. Many college students have internships with real companies that work in the area in which the students are interested. After they have learned from their textbooks and in the classroom, they are given the opportunity to see professionals in action and even to practice what they are learning.
I have benefited from this myself. I have done Exchange City, an economics course for students, for several years. The students learn academically through a workbook that teaches them about economics and asks them to complete activities. Then they learn experientially through their experiences at the city with other students. They are given the knowledge necessary to succeed in their experiences and are then allowed to practice what they have learned.
In conclusion, we see that it is necessary and valuable for people to learn both experientially and academically. While there is no replacement for experience, academic learning prepares and equips people for their future experiences in the real world and gives them the knowledge they need to succeed. When used together, a balance of academic learning and experiential learning can offer people a quality education.Holt Educational Consultant - / 14,864 
4788 M, this is another 5 score essay on your part. The main problem that you have with your writing is that you hold back when it comes to offering an insight into your personal experience/s regarding the topic being discussed. That happened twice in this essay. First you discussed the lessons you learned about in the textbook. Then failed to discuss how you learned from the practical applications of the theories you gained from the academic teaching of the book. Your reference to Exchange City suffers from the same problem. If you are to successfully argue the validity of a balanced value between experiential and academic learning, then you must clearly show how this has applied to your learning in real life. Your references are sound. It is just that your personal experience is under developed when that should be the most developed part since you are speaking of a time when you underwent the experience discussed. It should have been the strongest part of the essay. Such strong personal evidence or convictions would help to increase your score to a 6. There are no grammar problems, only discussion presentation problems in your work.
@Holt, thank you again for your fast and insightful comments. I am planning to take my test next Wednesday, but feel much better prepared for the essays due to this practice and your feedback. This is a great forum!
