Some people believe that exams are an inappropriate way of measuring students’ performance and should be replaced by continuous assessment. Do you agree or disagree with this view?

These few years’ examination has become on way of

assessment

of students’ performance and their performance in these exams is required to move students from one stage of their academic progression to the other. The majority of the academia has sole confidence in

this

approach and it has become a standard and the norm.

Firstly

, I struggle to understand how a few hour exams can assess a

student

’s capability of an academic

work

done for over a semester or a session. It is obvious that that

assessment

will not be completely thorough. In every

course

, there are areas where

student

could be better and some areas where they are weak.

However

, it means if a

student

gets exam questions in his weak areas,

then

the

student

will not pass that

course

and it is deemed that the

student

has failed.

This

kind of

assessment

is one-sided and should not be the best approach for assessing a

student

’s understanding of the

course

.

Secondly

, in a situation where on the exam day the

student

is either sick or psychologically disturbed

then

it’s likely the

student

might not perform well or either fail the

course

. In

this

case the exam has not shown the ability of the

student

.

This

buttress the saying that “that an examination is not the true test of a man’s knowledge".

Finally

, I strongly recommend a continuous

assessment

of the

student

over the period of the

course

work

,

this

should include project

work

, group

work

, assignment and quiz. These are the best approaches to assessing a

student

’s performance.