Examination Hinders Education
Examination in education
is a kind of testing students’ ability to perform in a particular subject. When
learning and teaching process was conducted perfectly, one way to prove the
potentiality of the students in understanding the material well is by executing
the test. There are many kinds of tests, each with a specific purpose, a
particular criterion to be measured. They are diagnostic test, placement test,
progress or achievement test, proficiency test, internal test, external test,
objective test, subjective test, and combination test (Ezekiel, 2012). Those
types of tests are way of checking knowledge or comprehension. They are the
main instrument which used to evaluate learning by most educational
institutions. Arikunto (1992) stated that the characteristics of the tests
typically are both –reliable – they should be expected to show consistent
results for each student, and valid – the tests should be accurately testing
the content that they are supposed to test. Nowadays, examinations seem to be
an indispensable part of education. Some people argue that exams exert a
detrimental influence on both students and teachers, while some others claim
that exams have the inherent advantages. People are not likely to reach a
consensus in this issue, so let’s take a consideration of both contrary sides
in the following paragraph.
Some arguments manifest that examinations have some merits. In the first
place, they are easy tools to regularly assess a student's capability. Exams
help a lot to bring an improvement in the individual's knowledge because they
provide regular feedback to the students who acknowledge their shortcomings and
work on them. In the second place, examinations are not only a knowledge test,
but also give a challenge to students express what they learn under pressure.
Students can adapt to the fierce competition in the future much more easily. In
the third place, it is also a feedback to teachers. Teachers can find out what
are their students advantages and disadvantages through the exams, and change
the teaching plans and teaching methods based on the results.
Admittedly, exemptions also have the drawbacks. To begin with, some students
may lose their confidence and self-esteem if they cannot get an excellent
score. Moreover, too more exemptions make students exhausted. For instance, in
some Chinese school, students take more than 10 exams in a week, which will
make the students lose their interest in study (Woessman, 2011). On the other
hand, they also have a poor predictive quality because they only judge a
student's ability under set conditions and limited time. Many times, a student
who is otherwise good may get anxious or confused under strict exam conditions
and may not perform up to the mark.
In a nutshell, I would concede that too more examinations may have some bad
effects. Despite that, I am convinced that examinations can promote the
development of education. Overall, I believe that both teachers and
students would get benefit from the reasonable exams. Examinations should be
formative in order to be effective because students learn in different ways.
Examinations can be also modified from the traditional paper- pen style to
modern computer or hands-on method. The good results of exams is to give more
information about students' learning to parents, teachers and students
themselves, so that strengths will be maintained and weakness will be corrected
on time.
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