Some people think that exams are an unsuitable way of measuring
student's abilities and they should be replaced by continuous
assessments. In my opinion, I agree with the statement.
Firstly, the impact of exams on students' mental health. In other words,
nobody denies that students feel stress when exams season is soon for
them and many of them try to hurt themselves. For example, the number
of students who suicide in China has increased for a few years, this is
mainly because of the difficult exams which are provided to them.
Hence, exams are an inappropriate way of measuring student's ability
because of the stress, they feel before the exam and that would impact
the students to show their real ability in the exam.
Another point is that assessments are more effective than exams. That is
to say, if students were asked to do homework frequently, they would be
more hardworking in their studies. However, when it comes to exams,
students have an exam season which takes more than a month between
each exam season. For instance, for me, I use to taking my exams every
month. Therefore, assessments make hard-working students, but exams
make lazy students because they do not have to study frequently, they
could just study during exam season.
In conclusion, I believe that exams are an unfortunate way of measuring
students' performance and they should be replaced by continuous
assessments, this is because of the impact of exams on students' mental
health and homework is more effective than exam seasons. If exams
were to be banded, students would be happy.
