Yet, despite the great success of its education system, Singapore has been reforming it to lay less stress on rote-learning and repetitive tests and more on self-expression.

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They also showed that injecting normal mice with extra ghrelin increased the number of synapses in the hippocampus - and improved the animals' performance in several learning and memory tests.

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They could also be made to spend a year learning before taking their tests.

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And part of making sure our young people meet these high standards is designing tests that accurately measure whether they are learning.

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Schools make allowances for kids suffering from most kinds of learning disabilities, such as the ability to take tests alone, with extra time.

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"The purpose of such a forum would be to stimulate a public debate about the need for national standards that promote effective learning, rather than those which lead only to hot housing for tests and exams, " said Mr Moore.

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Schools are then graded not by average tests scores but by aggregated data on how much they have enhanced the learning of each of their students.

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After learning about the miscarriage rates associated with invasive testing, she opted to receive one of the new tests at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

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