DO WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO RETHINK THE CONCEPT OF FINAL EXAMS?

                  

DO WE SERIOUSLY NEED TO RETHINK THE CONCEPT OF FINAL EXAMS?

Do we have an obsession with marks that places more importance on what is regurgitated above what is digested; cramming and forgetting rather than building understanding.

How many good and potential students will be crushed under the system of exams?

You are more than your class 8 marks or high school grades without having to even touch on higher education rankings. Marks are not equal to ones fate, unless you let them. Examination is a system that is man-made and severely limited in nature to judge ones capabilities.

Have we not intending ended up promoting a culture of studying to pass exams other than learning and applying that knowledge. Was passing exams the goal of our education system or was there a bigger picture?

If a student happens to score poorly due to external factors outside of school, then don’t you think exam no longer is a good index of how well a student knows the material? Yet, the world continues to trot along.

The problem of measuring intelligence is that it is an inadequate guide to human capability, simply stated, measuring intelligence through examination is, inevitably, as limited as the examination itself. We should value both the effort and the outcome and not just outcome only no matter how it came through. Results are good but they are not everything.

 Creativity is ignored in favour of the ability to provide expected answers, says Peter Tait, headmaster of Sherborne Preparatory School.

No single exam is important enough to define an individual. Just because one exam went badly, doesn't mean you’re now a failure. Think of other things you’re good at and things you’ve achieved to avoid letting a bad exam knock you off balance. (Or is it that there is nothing wrong with exams we just take them too personal and the way we interpret the results is the problem?).

One of the greatest shortcomings with exams is how they leads us to start measuring ourselves in the eyes of others. They often drive us to draw conclusions about ourselves that are incorrect. We start seeing ourselves in the light of the results we got and we use that single occasion to judge our standing in the bigger picture of life.

“We lose too many talented and intelligent people by defining intelligence through tests that are on themselves inadequate and constricting. We need to look wider and encourage the entrepreneur, the inquisitive, the creative and the downright cussed in our schools to make the most of who they are and to bring out the richness and diversity of thought and ideas in our society. We only have to reflect on some of our leading public figures who dropped out of school and have ended up in prominent positions in public life to know that the traditional system of assessment was not capable of measuring their particular abilities, their sense of purpose, work ethic and creativity.” Peter Tait, headmaster of Sherborne Preparatory School.

There are also many ‘intelligent’ people, as measured by our schools, who have the historic indicators of intelligence but are painfully deficient in other aspects.

As someone has said, it’s not the student that didn’t get the correct answers, the questions were wrong. As you walk out of the exam hall and  by bad chance you know it went badly, remember it is only an exam , and it's not the end of the world neither does it carry the  power to tell you how you’ll end in life.

Best of luck to all 2019 class eight and form four candidates.