Ever since people started to appreciate the meaning of
higher education, students worst dreams have been exams. Teachers always say
that we shouldn’t panic so much but take things easy before an exam, but I
perfectly understand such a fearful reaction. Some weeks ago I was talking with
my younger cousin and she told me about her view about ways of examination.
To begin
with, exams are not entirely fair, it is impossible to check the entire
knowledge during an exam. It is usually a matter of coincidence which
questions/topics students get in an exam. Moreover, deliberately or not, the
examiners’ assessment of a student’s performance may be distorted for example
because of their personal motives or current well-being. Also such factors as
simple being under the weather on the day of an exam may affect the result.
What
is more, students work might be also evaluated by other, maybe in more
effective ways. For example, preparing a project in groups and presenting it to
examiners (or maybe to other students as well). Such a manner of passing a
year/semester would not only let the examiners mark the students, but also
contribute some valuable contents (for example, help the examined people
develop their abilities of working in a team or by the way teach the rest of
students a part of material in an interesting way).
Finally,
continuous assessment of students’ work is the fairest solution, because it
controls not only the outcomes of the educational process but also our
commitment, involvement in the subject and workload during a whole period of
evaluated academic time. By measuring our work this way, teachers would have
enough time to judge without hurting anyone in the most objective way.
So
what do you think about these arguments? Do you think someday people will
introduce and promote this way of students assessment? Are the exams the best
way of evaluating students’ work?
What is your favourite and effective ways of reduce, managing and cope with stress?
Comments
In my opinion the perfect solution would be writting assigments and giving presentations.
Of course evaluating the all year or one semester work could be ok, but some people prefer to work harder in a short period of time In contradistinction to people who prefer to work less intensively every week and I don't think it is anything bad :) Because in my opinion they are doing exactly the same, but accordingly to their preferences.
In my opinion assigments or presentations are the best solution, because people learn the most while doing them. When I was writing my bachelor thesis on UW I think that I have learnt the most in my whole studies by writing it ;) I had to read a lot of material, I had to decide what was important, what was not, I had to put it in my own words and I think it is awesome way of learning. Simmilar with presentations, you need to find material but also present it interestingly. It also have a big advantage of trying yourself as a speaker in front of the public (that in future could not be that understanding… So it is better to make mistakes and learn in front of the nicer one ;) )
Exams should be banned as they are no good for student and the teacher as well.
In my opinion a nice method of testing students' knowledge would be some sort of practical excercses.
I think that some studies over education methods will soon implement new, better ways of examining.
My way of coping stress is being really well prepared. If I know that I can answer all the questions, I feel comfortable. If I am not able to prepare myself completely, it is good to use a friend's company - they can talk you out of stress and make you think of something else. Also, not taking everything too seriously is a good method - you can always take the exam again and failing is not the end of the world:)
In my opinion, the best way of learning is by using your knowledge in real life situations. You can only learn by making mistakes and there is really no possibility of making mistakes, by learning some dictated sentences by hearth. That is the reason why I think the most reliable and efficient way of testing students knowledge is by making projects. They can definitely better prepare students for future jobs, than boring and stressful exams.
As for me the best way to pass the exam is a project and it's a perfect practice. You learn by doing something, by doing mistakes, by searching solutions not by just reading books. You should understand it, understand how does it work.
But unfortunately I think it's also very important to know all these terms and so on.
So I think these type of exams will be forever :)
Exams are a lot cheaper, faster and they require less effort. It is obvious that they will be the primary approach used for assessing students' knowledge even when it's not the best one.
How to cope with stress? Try to tame the lion :) in case of exams for sure it's really helpful to be prepared for them...
Second approach is quite interesting and is also accepting for me. The group know be much better the teacher. They know what i did and what not.
The third is too much time consuming i think.Teacher should spend more time evaluating the learning, it's not good approach.
I think projects are the best, because you can work for a long time for example one 2 month. You learn how to do something and then you have to do it by your own, up to the deadline, like in normal life.
First thing that should be changed is not the way of examining, but rather what we are taught. When learning something that you will be using later on, you should know everything that is possible to know. Seriously I don't think there are any excuses, let's take a doctor for example. I don't think that any one of you would tell anything bad about exams which check medical knowledge of a guy who later on might be checking your health.
Basically exams or tests are a neccesity on universities. Best case scenario is people go to universities to get in-depth knowledge of the subject of their interest to deffend their thesis and get a diploma. No tests needed, 'cause students WANT and WORK HARD to get that knowledge.
Well, guess that's not how it works nowadays right?
But yes, exams in some cases are good, especially when it becomes some kind of "certificate" that proves your knowledge. For example language exams are quite acceptable for me and they reflect the knowledge, because it is about usage of the language, knowing some random words etc not only checking how good you have memorised a book you have ridden 1 week ago, that you will forget about 80% one week after an exam..
Anyway... in my opinion exam on the end of semester is also good solution to pass and remember more, because you have to make review.
I believe that practical tasks, especially these based on real life examples, are a good way of assessing the knowledge (and a nice teaching method as well). Creating challenge that has to be dealt with is an effective motivator in my opinion.
As for my ways of reducing stress, I just try to be prepared as much as possible. :)
Unfortunately sometimes (for example math) is maybe even impossible to make project. Exam is necessary to check if and how you can solve tasks. So as you wrote in your comment... these type of exams will be forever:)
It makes me really angry when exam does not check your knowledge but tests if you remember what color of cover had book about network security and under what color of cover were informations about systems security.
Such exam happened here, at PJATK and those question made it extreme lottery to pass.
Whole idea of exams is rather fine for me. When people are willing to they can learn systematically and just revise their knowledge before exams and other, who prefer to learn everything using mentioned 'Quadruple Z' method are also able to apply it.
The best cure for stress is preparation and systemathical work. It’s rather not dissapoint. Unfortunatelly most of us have a problem with it.
What is your favourite and effective ways of reduce, managing and cope with stress?
To me exams have their good and bad sides. They do allow for a unified assessment and in some areas of studies this can work well. Some of you have pointed out that a group project would be better idea, but to me scoring a group project can be less fair sometimes, as not everyone puts in the same amount of effort, time and knowledge into the final product.
Unfortunately I could not write back as answer now, maybe I'll do it in Monday.
Greetings!