Exams often do little more than measure a person's ability to take Research Paper

Exams often do little more than measure a person's ability to take exams. Should exams be outlawed in favor of another assessm - Research Paper Example This is a widespread practice in universities to normal exams, where the main goal is judgment rather than using formative forms of assessment where the main objective is simply learning. A number of researchers have pointed out that there is reliance on exams as many educators evaluate their students in the same manner as they were evaluated when they were learners (Dikli, 2003). Coherently, phrases such as â€Å"Final Examination Marks† can be read in reports forms of today’s students (Boston, 2002). Normally referred to as end-of-the-year exams, such forms of assessment are intended to determine the extent of a student’s education. Simply put, did a learner learn what he/she was expected to learn and to what level? It is with these marks that an educator can assign a student a particular grade. Formative assessment, also known as assessment for learning, is a method, which is maybe, more than anything else, a benchmark for a teacher to decide what they require to do to push the student forward. It is, therefore, not for grading, but learning. This paper finds that formative assessment is a better tool for assessing a student when compared to exams and the findings will be discussed below. Exams An exam is an assessment tool planned to gauge a test-taker’s (student) skill, knowledge, aptitude and, at times, physical fitness or classification in numerous other topics. An exam might be administered verbally, on a computer, on paper or in a secured room, which needs a test taker physically and mentally to carry out a set of skills. Exams differ in style, requirements or rigor (Boston, 2002). For instance, in a closed examination conducted in a majority of schools, a test-taker is normally needed to depend on his/her memory to reply to particular items while, in an open test, the test-taker might utilize one or more supplementary sources. An exam might be administered officially or casually (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). A case of a casual exam would be a reading test given by an educator to a student. A case of an official exam, on the other hand, would be a final test given by an educator in a restricted classroom (Boston, 2002). Educators use these results to assign tests scores or grades. A test score might be understood in line with a criterion or norm, or even, at times, both (Dikli, 2003). The norm is that an exam might be established autonomously or by numerical analysis, or a considerable number of participants. Normally, the difficulty or format of the exam is reliant on the educational philosophy of the educator, class size, subject matter, requirement of accreditation and the policy of the institution (Boston, 2002). However, to what extent do exams assist students succeed in life? Is it a vital tool for assessing today’s students in a world filled with many individual who think creativity is better than the normal form of education? A lot of students today are worried about the amount of tim e, which is spent on exam preparation, and all the tension that is experienced (Boston, 2002). As a result, a good number of institutions are taking on progress assessments. Maybe, another option, nevertheless, should be for schools to do away with examinations (Dikli, 2003). Anxiety and stress are widespread in elementary, secondary, as well as university students these days, as