TOEFL® essay: Not everything that is learned is contained in books

[Dwdimov]

There are two different kinds of knowledge. It’s very difficult to create a comparison between them bacause they are only different forms of one thing -intellectual knowledge.

I’ll try to explain the advantages and disadvantages of this two forms of knowledge. I’ll start my statement with knowledge gained from the books. I’ll separate it in two types – science knowledge and popular knowledge. Modern science require from the students to learn many infomartion . Partially, this information comes from the books. Another important part come from the experiments. But the books provide a lot of information at low prise. The experiments require presence of the students while the information from the books is available everywhere. This is undisputably an advantage of the information gained from the books.

The books provide not only science information. They provide us popular knoledge. Non-science books are good way to improve your general knowledge. However, I think that the knowledge from the non-science books must be tested in real live. It’ll separate the really useful knowledge from “paper” knowledge.

In conclusion, I think that these two types of knowledge are equally important. The combination between them is best way to improve all kinds of knowledge.

[Alan]

There are two different kinds of knowledge. It’s very difficult to create a comparison between them because they are only different forms of one thing -intellectual knowledge.

I’ll try to explain the advantages and disadvantages of THESE two forms of knowledge. I’ll start my statement with knowledge gained from the books. I’ll separate it in two types – science knowledge and popular knowledge. Modern science require the students to learn A LOT OF infomartion . Partially, this information comes from books. Another important part come from experiments. But books provide a lot of information at A low priCe. Experiments require THE presence of the students while the information from books is available everywhere. This is undisputably an advantage of the information gained from the books.

Books provide not only science information. They provide us WITH popular knoWledge. Non-science books are A good way to improve your general knowledge. However, I think that the knowledge from the non-science books must be tested in real liFe. It’ll separate the really useful knowledge from “paper” knowledge.

In conclusion, I think that these two types of knowledge are equally important. The combination between them is THE best way to improve all kinds of knowledge.


Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A New Season

[Danilogianni]

Knowledge is a crucial factor for everybody’s life and personal development but it is not easy to understand if knowlegde that derives from books is better or wors than the one that has been gained from life experiences for many reason.

Firstly in the perpective of what someone can actually learn from experiences and from studing, secondly because they refers to different levels.

On one hand I agree on the statement that not everything is learned is contained in books because life experience in public relationships everybody has or in things that happened in the past lead them to better know how to face a similar situation or in any case provide them with new skills developed on other issues that can be usefull for the future too.

On the other hand I cannot conceal that I strongly believe that only knowledge lernt by studing can actually help us in understanding situations we were not ready to face. For example my personal studies background gives me the tecnichal instruments to solve a problem I can deal with on job, life experiences’ knowlegde does not.

This is due to the fact that what we learn in life is something very pragmatic that refers to personal relationship and to a phycological side somehow; what we learn studiying maybe is more theoric but helps in many situations too. A typical situation in which we need both kinds of knowledge is a job enterview: in that case everybody has to show off all their school knowledge and at the same time to give a positive impression by using skills they gained by life experiences.

In the light of the above I strongly believe that we equally need both kinds of knowlegde in order to get the best from any situation and therefore it cannot be said that one is more important than the other one.

[DeCesaris]

There are many ways to obtain knowledge which differ from the traditional and respectful books. Understanding this mechanism can help everybody to improve skills faster, getting from all opportunities the best possible learning.

With the increase of the number of schools and improving of education quality, general society has accepted the idea that the best knowledge is that one from the Higher Study Organizations like Universities and others. For companies in general, graduation is the guarantee required from candidates to assure that a specific level of knowledge is reached. Being successful in this method of learning means a lot of time on the books. So, that's the reason people usually think books can provide everything is needed.

However, learning from books sometimes cannot give the best solution for a problem. It's necessary to learn from others ways, like media (television, radio, movies), press, Internet, someone else's experiences and, possible the most important, own experiences. For instance, to become a leader, the most you talk to your group seeking the perfect sinergy among the people, the most you learn how to manage the conflicts and find the solution for a problem. Of course nowadays there are books talking about leadership, but just with people interacting is possible to experience situations which will create our capacity to face new problems.

In another hand, as mentioned before, nowadays it's possible to find specific books for several matters, exactly because someone else has learned enough to write a book. So, learning from books means learn what another person spend some time in, and in many cases this time is not available now.

When it's possible to take the best of each kind of opportunity of learning, capacity of solving problems and improve our live quality can increase quickly, and this is the best definition of wisdom.