BlogARE WRITTEN EXAMS ACTUALLY GOOD AT ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING?
ARE WRITTEN EXAMS ACTUALLY GOOD AT ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING?
2025-09-13
Exams are tests we take in school or while getting education but the question is does the exam really determine how smart we are? Many students feel scared or nervous when listening to exams while some might be chill or stress free while taking exams.People have different answers to the question “Are written exams actually good for assessing students' learning?”Some might agree and disagree with this question. According to the Grade seven ‘Pashupati’ section, all of the students disagreed with this question.
According to the survey in grade 7 ”pashupati” section, only 10 out of 39 students think exams do a decent job at testing students' knowledge. Among 39 students, 9 have failed an exam despite understanding the material well.37 of the students think there should be more project based assessments instead of traditional exams and 24 students think that students should be allowed to retake exams if a student gets a bad grade.
Some people say exams are the test to see how much knowledge we’ve gained . If someone gets good grades then it is considered that they’ve learned the lesson,worked hard and understood. Teachers and parents use exams to see what we learned.Exams usually develop our critical thinking and understanding, it also shows how much we’ve listened and gained throughout the year. It makes teachers understand how attentive we are in their classes and behavior. Achieving a good grade on exams can boost the students confidence and can make them feel very proud of themselves.
But the students say exams are hard and it doesn't show whether we are smart or not. Many students get nervous and stressed making them forget what they studied and practiced. Many students might be talented in other things like dance, sports,art etc. In their 2024 study on test anxiety, Jarso et al. state that “Test anxiety could cause poor academic performance and increase dropout rates.” Students put pressure on themselves during exams which can harm their health, they study late at night and wake up tired in the morning and might forget what they studied. Some students might be smart but not get high grades, some parents might put stress on their child to keep on studying hard.
Also, being smart is not only about remembering answers, it's also about solving problems, being kind, creating ideas, helping others and many more but exams do not show these things. According to Shibeshi and Baheretibeb, “the traditional ‘pencil and paper’ examinations may not give a complete representation of the academic capability of present‑day students” (3552). Students today can and should express their capabilities in ways that go beyond the concept of traditional written exams. If one gets higher marks and other gets low does not mean that they are not talented.Some students have their own and unique way of expressing their talent. Many students want Oral exams rather than written exams while some want digital exams but at the same time some students might also be comfortable with written exams. But not only students teachers should also be responsible and fair while marking the papers with no favoritism .Teachers should get enough time to complete the syllabus and also the questions should come from the syllabus so the students can get a nice grade.
So, exams are just one way to see learning. It might show how well someone prepared but they don't show everything. Exams are important and we need to study hard but just because you don't get high marks doesn't mean you’re not smart, every student is smart in their own way. At the end of the talk exams are stressful and students have pressure no matter what grade or level they are.
References
Jarso, Tariku, et al. “Test Anxiety and Its Determinants Among Health Sciences Students at Mattu University: A Cross-Sectional Study.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 14, 2023, article 1241940, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1241940.
Shibeshi, Workineh, and Yonas Baheretibeb. “Assessment Practices of Learning Outcomes of Postgraduate Students in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at College of Health Sciences at Addis Ababa University: Student and Faculty Perspectives.” Sustainability, vol. 14, no. 6, 2022, p. 3552, MDPI, https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063552.
