Why do we have exams

[btrash]

Exams are probably is probably the most dreaded aspect of academic life. Like an age old torturing device, every course would have one of these at the end to the demise of all the students taking it. The debate would always question ?Why do we take exams? and ?Do exams really hold any value other than rote learning?. The common answer would be that exams give an indication how much one has learnt in the course along with one?s mastery of the subject. Although this is true, it has been proposed that exams actually greatly improve one?s memory according to the ?Mediator Effectiveness Hypothesis?.

Read more at http://www.scishark.com/2011/04/exams/

Now the question is the stuff you learn actually useful?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Exams taught me how to learn a large, complicated subject the day before, by breaking it down into key points, and lamenting all the time you wasted in previous days. Then you just write crap loosely based on the subject at hand.
It results in hilariously polarised exam scores, as some people like that style of answer, showing a broad grasp of factors affecting the question, while others only mark it for information on the subject. I still believe that the proof of Quantum Mechanics Chaos Theory can be found in my individual GCSE exam scores.

I should note that this approach only works for essay based questions.

 

[Wuffykins]

Let's see, hrmm. Doctors. Airline Pilots. Nuclear Technicians...

Nah, none of what they learn is useful. Not at all.

But seriously, there is that point where you can pay for a class and just sleep through the damned thing without a consequence. Exams at the very least show the measure of what they got out of it (or displays creative methods of cheating). Granted, I find they're not the best method to be frank, but at the very least it gives a validation of something taken from the class.

 

[Woodsey]

Huh? Of course the stuff you learn is useful.

OK, the vast majority of what you learn initially will often never be directly used again, but the whole point is that you narrow your learning down as you go, depending on what career you want.

 

[Vet2501]

Exams are definately important. Final degree exams ensure people are going to be safe in their chosen profesion. Take me for example, would you feel safe allowing me operate on your pet without knowing that I had undergone 5 years of training and examination beforehand?

 

[Sansha]

Exams are examinations of what a student has learned, and how they retain that knowledge, and from that decided whether or not their expertise is worth of a qualification.

In short, evidence that you learned correctly what you've been taught, so people trust you to perform in your chosen field.

Imagine if airline pilots, surgeons or architects weren't tested. Basically anyone who showed up to the classes would be qualified and given employment at the end of it.

 

[Brawndo]

Having no life for 2-3 weeks helps put some perspective in life. When I'm done I feel like an escaped prisoner and everything is more fun.

 

[MinimanZombie]

Exams are a test of intelligence and determination. In my eyes if you revise and stick to it you could do better than anyone else, even if you were one of he worst in the class. Possibly. Hate em or love them, there important.

 

[William MacKay]

Exams taught me how to learn a large, complicated subject the day before, by breaking it down into key points, and lamenting all the time you wasted in previous days. Then you just write crap loosely based on the subject at hand.
It results in hilariously polarised exam scores, as some people like that style of answer, showing a broad grasp of factors affecting the question, while others only mark it for information on the subject. I still believe that the proof of Quantum Mechanics Chaos Theory can be found in my individual GCSE exam scores.

I should note that this approach only works for essay based questions.

you learned them the day before?
most of my yeargroup do class-revision months in advance and nothing right before.
but my complaint with exams is thats not how the world works. they say 'this prepares you for the real world' but how many people, at your jobs, sit down for 1.5 hours to answer questions about your job. most jobs are either practical (like medicine, science, technical, computing) or file-work (like economics, accounting, law)

 

[Scarim Coral]

It just to ensure and test us that we actually do learn what we had been taught. Just taking a whole year on a subject alone does not determent your rate of learning progress (well unless you had been given a lot of feedback throughout that year).

 

[Tulks]

they say 'this prepares you for the real world' but how many people, at your jobs, sit down for 1.5 hours to answer questions about your job. most jobs are either practical (like medicine, science, technical, computing) or file-work (like economics, accounting, law)

And yet, in all of these jobs (and many others), there will be times where you will be expected to recall facts on demand without prior notice or access to reference materials.

 

[Chessrk]

I've seen this time and time again and the people complaining of exams are either:

i) Someone who does not do well on exams. I've never seen a college student, in a field he/she enjoys, complain of an exam they've prepared for and have done well on. What I do see however are people bitching about the usefulness of exams AFTER receiving a failing test score. You need to stop. Now.

ii) Someone who gets bored easily. This one kind of mind boggles me, namely how such a smart person cannot see that they require higher level courses. Unless!? They be trolling! Dun dun dun!

iii) A high school kid. Stop talking. Wait for college.

---

But I digress, the best reason for exams existing is because there are simply no suitable replacements. And just not having exams is stupid. Really stupid. Don't even go there.

 

[Wonderbread9000]

Im in engineering, so my exams test my ability to apply all of the equations that we learn to real life scenarios, which is useful. While I don't like studying for exams, they do help me relearn everything from the course.

As an alternative to exams though, I would rather do more design projects where we get to do hands on application of what we learned, since I would find that more interesting. In fields like engineering I can see where exams can be replaced with something just as or more useful, but they definitely do serve a purpose.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Exams taught me how to learn a large, complicated subject the day before, by breaking it down into key points, and lamenting all the time you wasted in previous days. Then you just write crap loosely based on the subject at hand.
It results in hilariously polarised exam scores, as some people like that style of answer, showing a broad grasp of factors affecting the question, while others only mark it for information on the subject. I still believe that the proof of Quantum Mechanics Chaos Theory can be found in my individual GCSE exam scores.

I should note that this approach only works for essay based questions.

you learned them the day before?
most of my yeargroup do class-revision months in advance and nothing right before.

Well, I did do some revision for them in the weeks prior to an exam, maybe a half hour a day, but nothing longer than that until the day before. (Motivation is a big problem with me) But we had excellent teachers, who drilled us for weeks prior to the various GCSE module tests with practice papers, so there was plenty of revision in class and with homework. I also only got a B in every subject, which is pretty mediocre, and totally my fault, and 3 A's in the ones I had revised properly (Science, which is just memorising the answers to questions that came up every year) and History (Which I love, so I just talked crap from my own knowledge about Hitler till the cows came home)