Are exams a waste of time?

[KcMurray]

well...exams are definitely not a waste of time becoz the result tells us how much effort we hav put in for the year.....and its important for students to realise that whether they hav paid attentions in class or just wondered around for the whole year...

[mirage]

I am new in this website, hello everybody :)

I will be an english techer next year, I am a universitiy student in one of the countries.

I don t think exams are waste of time.you are tested whether you are good at the subject or not by means of exams.
If teachers aware you are not good at,they teach the subject again in different ways by applying different methods

In addition,if there is no obligation in this teaching environment,anybody won t have a willing to study.

so I advise you to study a lot to be an apprecient person in society

[fahrenheit]

In my opinion exem isn't devil of darkness. If you are bright-thinking, smart, resposable - you will pass your exem even more it would be peasure for doing it. Personaly i have many gaps in my learning, but i try to fill it with well quality knowlegde...

[kathymimi]

exams are not waste of time to some point. at least you can really keep something in your mind if you want to pass the exams, or you may never spend your time in trying remember what you have learned in classes.

[Laxuan]

I think exam is very neccessary
without them you wont know which level you're at and which skills you are bad at, it also help other people to assess you when you apply for jobs.
In the other hand, some people try to use nasty equipment to help them to get good marks in an examination so it isn't really fair for the rest of student.Furthermore, some examiner who recieved money or any other things of the candidate will ignore what they will be doing during the exam.
so an exam always has pros and cons

[samanehkarga]

I think if students are not frightened of the exams it can be a good way to know them-selves much better but if they are stressful because of having an exam it won't be sth useful because they study just to pass the exam not to learn what they study so it depends on the situation to decide if the exams are waist of the time or not

[sharklish]

Well, as an educator I say no, perhaps students see this in a different spectrum.

In my teaching performance I´ve tried to show my students ,in practice , that exams can be fun.
All of these thru at a small pace, giving them the tools to put their own ideas in practice.

I challenge them into new situations, for example the world, techonology and personal topics.
One of the things that they are very clear by know is that one thing is to speak a second language and another it is to sound intelligent in a second one, in this case English.

I do believe, that exams are part of the overall performance that we persue, and as an instructor, I have the interesting and no less challenging responsibility to show them that exams are in a way one of the tools that I have to measure their own ideas.

PD: Our higher mark in Chile is a 7.0. Anyone who has been taught by me has this mark at the beginning of a test. Thru the process of correction some mistakes appear and at the end you keep the highest mark or not.
But the most important thing for my students is to express their ideas in a clear and simple way.


i agree with you .
HugoR
Chile

[hanamichi]

I think exams are good for us.They test our knowledge.However, in my country, there are too many tests and exams in a year and it makes me tired. I think we only need two tests and one exam for each subject in a term.

[engineer]

Hi,

exams are very important to start new step (stage),

thanks

[samento]

Waste of time! No no, I don't think so.
You spend not more than 1-2 hours to take an exam.
So It's don't waste your time.
And if you argue that you must spend more time to prepare yourself before an exam, I would say that you spend times for yourself, not for an exam.
In addition, if you don't have to take an exam, I believe that no body will prepare yourself.

[fortminor]

They are not wast of time, but all of them are so boring . i am always the first one who finishes ! lol...
consequently, everybody thinks i had studied so hard that i answered questions easily!they dont know i become bored when exam!

[tikay]

I just finished school with a large percentage of people who wouldn't even bother to show up to class half the time. they all relied upon the notes of other students and the pre test notes by coming on the right day to class. i dont know how they are going o do in life but I think it is easy to study enough to let some info sink in to your head, then one must rest well and eat well before tests. But then i never had a hard time in school. So who am i to give advise, it is a really hard time for some people. SO they should give tips...how they get by might be more helpful to people.
well I try to help.

[echip]

Students have to study too much nowadays and many exams make them worried! Some of them hate exams (like me), others don't! But, if all exams are waste of time, we won't know what to do after studying! That's the problem!
Ah, i'm terribly sorry if I make all of you annoyed 'coz there are some mistakes in your replies (in grammar or vocabulary), hope you can fix them!
Thanks!

[star*dust]

i agree with Arale in that exams are good tools to measure where ur in the subject that ur studying..its also a good way of forcing students to review wat they studied and thus make it stick in their minds...at least at school!!
on the other hand, wen u leave school and enter the new life of universities, u start to wonder about the usefulness of exams and if there were a better way of grading the students....u c, students now r old enough to know wat they should study and wat may benefit them in life...so should we really force student to study because of an exam??? besides, exams are highly subjective in that its the teacher who chooses the questions and so something maybe important to him but the student really thinks its not which creates a problem. moreover, some of the students are really brilliant in a subject but they cant handle exam stress well.....does that mean that he is not a good student? and y should students be graded basing on the exams they take at the end of the year rather than their participation or understanding throughout the whole course?//

[Thoughts]

Of course, no.Exames can be defined as an instrument of evaluation student's level.They are so important for students in all different stages of studying.The teacher can motivate his (her)students by (daily, weekly,monthly)exame, to improve them & get good marks.Sometimes, daily preparation for any matrial may not be taken in student's care ,hence, exames will play good role to achive one of two aims.The student will do his best effort either to consider the exam a chance to get what he has lost so far, or only to pass the exam itself.Consequently, exames give us a useful benefit.Another importance of exames is obtaining right estimation of student's level.Obviously, students can be classified into different groups according to their scientific positions(their comperehension capacity,their ability to understand...etc..)Finally, achieving motivation & estimation of students will lead to the essentiaal benefit of exames,it is the reinforcing of learning process.

[shadds]

Are exams a waste of time?

NO not at all. Exams are equally important as learning. whatever people learn cannot be evaluated if there are no exams.

[dovilorous]

hi, im a new member here. I had come across this forum page and i thought it was quite interesting.
well, i am from SG where the education system, i would say, is quite demanding. we have busy schedules, but however i must note that other countries may have an even more hectic education schedule. in Singapore, from secondary education onwards, it is extremely independent. Should a student fail to take his/her studies into his/her hands, it would result in bad results during exams. this would result in them hating exams, for these results would have to be shown to their parents. yes, such a scenario is common everywhere. this would be the main problem psychologically. so the saying goes, "once bitten twice shy". everything has its good and bad points to it. but, even if students fail, soem may realise their mistake and pick themselves up from then on and excell in their studies. those who give up on themselves would then have great problems during their academic years ahead. in general, i must say that exams are useful, to gage each student's level of performance and whether they need help in certain areas of their academic studies.

[crystalfrogw]

Exam is a good method to test whether you have grasped the knowledge you have studied and will tell you on which direction you should pay more attention to.
Two resons may contribute to the condition-some of the students think exams terrible or boring.
1. a certain individual test itself is not good but not all exams are bad. for example some exams focus so much on theories or the knowlege which you need to recite instead of testing whether a students can use it into practice.
2. Indeed we must admit some students are afraid of exams because they don't make every effort to grasp what they should know. Learning is always not an easy thing to most of us(not include IQ>120, lol).so during the procedure of studying we may feel boring or exausted. At last in order to find an excause for themselves, they accuse of exams.
:P

[jrkp]

In my opinion, the problem with exams is that they are very subjective. When the teacher is checking it, he/she doesn`t consider your feeling or your health at the moment you took it. It is very difficult to take an exam when you have problems at home or you are sick. Have you ever taken an exam having a running nose or a headache, for example? or when a relative is ill?. I know that If you are facing that kind of situations, you can talk to the teacher and explain it to him/her, but some of them simply don´t care and force you to take it, even though you are not in your prime.

Also, the marks you can get depend on the point of view of the teacher, because sometimes you have to answer what he/she WANTS and not what you have learnt. To make my point clear, I have known cases where you learnt a different way to resolve a problem (a mathematic problem, to be specific)and, despite you have the same result of the teacher, he/she put that answer wrong, only because you don´t use the method he/she has taught you. Besides, Sometimes, teachers are not bias when they are checking the exams. You can find this situations when they are a student´s friend or, in some way, they are related. Do you think a teacher will put a bad mark to his/her own son? or what about his/her niece or godchildren? Or his neighbor?

On the other hand, exams are the only test method I know where teachers have completely control over the students. If teachers give them assignments (homeworks or papers, for example), the odds they will cheat are very high, considering that students have a lot of tools to do that nowadays. (internet for example.

To answer the question, Exams are not a waste of time if teachers apply them fairly.....

[krishan]

I Do't think that the exams are waste of time. We read hole the year. Our parents does not know that how we have Read. Exams shows the students capability of remember. At the end of exams we get result,it shows that our remember power. Exams are the way to proof a student how is he enteligent.[/code][/list]

[Kathfap]

I think that the evaluation of some courses is not good In the classroom there are students with more capacity than others. The evaluation is the same for both. I accept that there are students don’t study, but too there are students who are difficult learning. However, I agree that exams are very important for evaluate yours strengths and weaknesses. It is a great help for teachers because identify mistakes and possible solutions.

[Bambang]

...To answer the question, Exams are not a waste of time if teachers apply them fairly.....

This time I agree with you my friend. And as an addition, if there is something wrong about the implementation of the exams, then don't blame the exams themselves. In fact, the system or the way of the exams conducted should be improved to get a better one.

[nightwish]

Are exams a waste of time?

No, I don't think that exams are waste of time,
In contrast, it's so beneficial. Reading and studying the material that we had learnt make us memorize and understand the material very well.

[Krisi]

Definitely not!
Exams are for teachers, students and the parents of course.
An exam is one way of testing students' achievements.
Exams are for the students to assess themselves if they have done well or not.
An exam is a teachers' tool to know the level, and performance of each student. Also for the teachers to know if their (teachers') approach is effective to each of the student.
An exam is a device to inculcate to the students' mind what they have learned.
Exams are used for the parents to know if their children are attending their classes or not. And also an alarm for the parents if their children are learning or not.
I am focusing in schools only, how much more in other fields.
Exams are beneficial to all. How could it be a waste of time?

[skorpion]

Are exams a waste of time?

What do YOU think?

I think that really depends on the way exams are made. I believe that the traditional way of evaluating students is counter-productive.

I remember seing a documentary where this school evaluates students just with the purpose of knowing in what areas they are improving and what areas they need help. Once this is done, they make 'em work in teams to help each other, thus helping the teachers with their teaching.

The good thing is that the evaluation is not recorded. The student does not have to worry about any qualifications nor any possibility or having to go over the same school year next year.

So to summarize, well... yeah, I think they're a waste of time. At least in their approach.

[Alfabeto]

In my view, exams are not a waste of time. I'm a teacher, and unless I had really small classes (like five or six students at a time) I would have no way to judge their progress if we didn't do exams. Exams can be written to be as objective as humanly possible, you just need to know what your goal is.

[Anuska]

Yes they are q waste of time, because you are not going to work in all tjis subjects, I think that you just have to coose three subjects but do not do the exams, because when you are going to work you wont need to do exams

[Annaa]

Uhuahuahuehuahuhuhuhuuuahue in my country to take a grade are to ways one is with exams, other is the teacher ask you live in presence of all other students.Exams are a bad way cuz all my class`s friends steal in exams.But when teacher`s ask us in presence of all students u can`t steal from books or notebooks,u can speak only that that u know.

[AzizA]

Are exams a waste of time?

Are exams a waste of time?

Sometimes Ifeel so,simply because we rely on learning by heart in most of times!!

[Koala]

I don't think so. An exam help us check how much we've learned, how much knowledge we've got and how much we haven't. In other hand, if hadn't exams, would we spend time to review our lessons? especially lessons in subjects we don't like. In fact, all subjects are useful this way or that way but we only focus on what we like.