Examinations

 

Exams: a word that causes an instant feeling of stress to many students just by hearing, seeing, or reading it. While this may not be the actual definition of the word, it is fitting to the multitudes of students who will be writing theirs in the coming weeks or have already finished theirs. Personally, I’ve always wondered why exams were needed but when googled exams, short for examinations, is defined as a formal test of a person’s knowledge or proficiency in a particularsubject or skill. With this definition it becomes clear of the usefulness of an exam, but from personal experience this never occurs. Whether it be from outside factors that cause a lapse in MEMORY or poor teaching skills, exam almost never show the actual knowledge a person has of a subject.

Recently, there has been a petition made by students who feel they do not need exams to measure the knowledge they have received this past year. The petition felt it was unfair that 72 0000 out of the 700 000 students in Ontario did not have to write their exams due to strikes closing down the school for a numerous set of weeks.  The students who set up the petition claim that is unfair to the numerous other students who will still have to write an exam and potentially receive a worse mark due to stress of writing the exam. While the petition has no leeway into what will occur with exams, it does bring up the reoccurring question as to whether or not exams are needed.

In my opinion, exams should not be used as a way of evaluating a student’s knowledge of any subject. While to some it seems important to have that way to assess their knowledge, all it is doing it testing their memorization abilities. While being able to memorize certain concepts is needed, in most cases memorizing under pressure is simply useless. In my experience, most students start studying the week before the exam cramming in 5 months of knowledge in that week. Not only is it for one subject though, for most it is 3 or 4 different subjects that they have to cram into one week. Although teachers say they can start studying up to a month before, most students simply do not have the time whether it be school work, work or family obligations that get in the way. Thus, exams need to be replaced with a new way of assessing students.
 

While it is necessary to assess a student’s knowledge of a subject, students are already being assessed after learning new concepts with tests, quizzes and in some cases in-class assignments. What I think could work out is having a week long assessment period, much like regular school where major subjects are being tested each day. That way students don’t have to memorize everything all for one day, this could also work if the concepts are mixed in so students could still be expected to know everything for each day but if one day doesn’t go as expected they could make it up the next. This set up would allow students to gage where they are and fix it immediately, rather than have one big test where they are only given one shot. With the structure being the same as a regular school day the students would also be used to the class and their ‘examination’ set-up which is often cited as a useful tool to remember concepts.

Another idea would be to assign a unit of study to students and expect them to work on that throughout the semester, then at the end test them on that knowledge of that to see how well they learn on their own. By having students learn a subject on their own, knowing that they could ask for help as it is seen fit, students will become independent and resourceful on their own. Then when it comes times to seeing how well they do, everything will be in their own hands. They won’t have no one to blame for their bad marks but their own.

Overall though, I believe examining students as they currently do is not a healthy way to assess ones knowledge. Where some are naturally gifted with the ability to memorize everything over a 5 month period, some are not. The students who are not may be passionate about what they are doing, but when it comes down to it do not test well. While it could be seen as efficient in ‘weeding out the weak ones’, examinations are based on who can memorize a concept and apply it within the short time given effectively.