Formal examinations are the only effective way to assess a student's performance. Continual assessment such as course work and projects is not a satisfactory way to do this. Do you agree or disagree?

The only way to best evaluate the performance of a student is by conducting official examinations. Ongoing assessment like course work and projects is not good enough. I strongly disagree with

this

opinion, and the essay below will explain in details why I take

this

stance.

Firstly

, the role of formal examinations in the assessment of how well a student performs is overly exaggerated. Most students get so anxious even before the exam that they loss control of the situation.

For instance

, it is a known fact that students have panic attacks before or during exams.

However

, writing tests as the subject progresses provides a better relaxing environment and

therefore

, brings out the best from the students. It is for sure a better decision to choose the later.

Furthermore

, the inability to retain bulky information can make a candidate to perform poorly in examinations. Most examinations require recalling of many stored data from the brain. A good example is the fact that medical students are expected to remember details, all the topics from the

first

year of university in order to pass the final examination and become doctors.

This

, of course, results in a drastic reduction in pass rate.

Moreover

, ongoing evaluation fortunately eliminates

this

problem, as it creates an avenue for a smaller scope of the study to be assessed, thereby providing more appropriate judgement. In conclusion, formal examination is not the best approach to analyse how efficient a person is learning, since it raises serious anxiety and requires the ability to store and remember large scope of work. Inasmuch as many people advocate for it, I still strongly believe that it is not the best tool for a student's assessment.