[HEmanZ]

Where are people testing just rote memorization? At least 20 years ago when I was in lower school, most of what we did had only a very small memorization component. The SAT, ACT, SAT subject exams, etc only barely rely on memorization, and many questions have no memorization component at all. It’s why 4th graders can get top-percentile scores on some of these.

You need both memorization and applied reasoning to be taught in school. Without something to apply reasoning to you can’t really reason about anything. And without applied reasoning, memorization is pretty useless.