Exams – why they should be scrapped

Exams have been taken as a way of closing a chunk of education. It is a symbolic closing of doors on that subject area, at least for many students. Students ‘learn’ the content and then are tested on their ability to recall facts, theories, and occasionally examples. In my view, it is a simple memory game. It boils down to who has spent the longest rehearsing verses, mnemonics, and other devices of revision and be able to recall these in a bid to please the marker on how well they can remember the powerpoint slides. After exams, the memorised fact is cast aside ready for the new chunk of information to be rehearsed for the next exam. Students remember in short term for exams but never learn to remember it for life. They know it just enough to pass the exam.

Exams, and the game of memory were required back when libraries of information was a thing. Libraries, along with teachers and lecturers, were really the only source of information. Getting information was a chore. Because it was a chore to find, you learnt it off by heart because it was less painful than having to find it again.

In the modern era of computers and the internet, information is everywhere. You can’t get away from it. Search for something ambiguous and you’ll get millions of hits in 0.01 of a second. It’s easy, too easy to get access to information. The problem is getting the right information. You could put anything on the internet and say it’s correct or true without really knowing or have evidence to back it up.

Exams test your memory and recall of information but they don’t test your ability to find the correct information and the ability to sift the wheat from the chaff. It is now a chore to get through the abundance of information, not find it, and that’s exactly what should be tested with coursework and continuous assessment.

Exams aren’t ‘real life’. Life of course gives you hurdles, sometimes you have to think on your feet, but never does life set you an exam date to study to. The only predictable, and sometimes unpredictable, date is a birth. Again, no amount of studying could ever prepare you for the ’18 years of raising a child exam. It’s more like a piece of continuous assessment and the child is the marker.

I believe continuous assessment or coursework is the best practice for today’s modern technology and information overload. The ability of finding the correct information needs to be examined and not the ability of recall.

PS. I’m quite bitter because it’s exam season.