Why exams should be abolished
I think it’s time I proved that I’m not a total geek, and started writing some stuff not related to technology. So here is the first of many non-geeky posts…
As someone who has been through the school system up to A-Level and is now starting a degree, I think I’m well qualified to talk about what’s wrong with the educational system – more so than the idiots in the government who suggest one daft reform after another.
I have a piece of paper which says that I passed GCSE history. But what does it actually mean now? I could write everything I know about the Industrial Revolution and the development of medicine throughout history in a few paragraphs but I supposedly learnt all of this. So to answer my own question, that piece of paper proves nothing. It proves that I once passed a short-term memory test on a particular subject. What use is that?
Everybody knows that if you learn something but never use it, you forget it.
So what is the answer? I believe that the current way of assessing students is completely wrong. We are told facts in the classroom, remember them for a while, forget them, revise them shortly before the exam, then forget them again.
The answer, I believe, is to completely abolish exams. Rather than having an exam at the end of a course or academic year, there should be a series of much shorter tests throughout the course. Each test should cover parts of every topic taught so far in the course. Then the student can’t get away with just revising everything before the final exam, but must revise everything they’ve learnt so far before each short test. This should mean that things are committed to long-term rather than short-term memory and may actually give some value to academic qualifications. Not to mention a huge reduction to stress levels, which can’t be a bad thing.
Oh well. Just my 2p. I’m off to prepare for an exam tomorrow…
Monday, 10th May 2004 22:14 
Subscribe
By rehman, Friday, 14th May 2004 @ 15:20
nice comments on abolishing exams
By E, Sunday, 6th June 2004 @ 04:55
I am doing a debate on this subject and found this site very useful.
By emma, Friday, 18th June 2004 @ 16:55
Heya I totally agree with you i am doing a debate in school about this i will take this into school for a stronger point thanks alot! lv em x p.s I’m in year 8 aint had many exams but i totally agree!
By harvey, Sunday, 4th July 2004 @ 16:48
I am also doing a debate on this subject and everthing I needed was here.
By omar, Saturday, 23rd April 2005 @ 21:43
Great comments. I’m also doing a debate on this topic, and most of my arguments are in your essay. This is an awesome article. Thanks a lot.
By Nathania, Friday, 7th April 2006 @ 14:58
i was doing a debate and this really helped! Thanks!
By somebody, Saturday, 27th January 2007 @ 07:15
i am about to do a debate on this topic with the debating team and it was tatolly useful.thanks.
By Buddhika, Friday, 2nd March 2007 @ 16:37
Yo! Those points were in the house, they r gonna be helpful for my essay I am supposed to do.