There seems to be an increasing trend towards assessing student through exams rather than continual assessment. What are the disadvantages and advantages of exams as a form of assessment?

Exams are gradually becoming a trend for assessing students

instead

of continual - grading - system.

This

practice has some demerits and merits. I will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of using exams rather than continuous appraisals as a form of below. The use of exams as a method of evaluation

instead

of repeated tests has some advantages. One of

such

advantages is that

this

practice allows the pupil to focus on doing well in only once in a semester.

For example

, a recent study by the Department of Education, University of Benin showed that students preferred to do a single examination in a semester rather than continuous evaluation of understanding because it is less stressful to prepare for. Another advantage of

this

trend is that the resources a school would have used in conducting regular test would be saved.

However

, the use of continuous - evaluation - method for evaluating performance

also

has some disadvantages.

Firstly

, the student is provided with an opportunity to show he understands a course in only once. If he fails to do

this

, he has no chance to prove he has learnt anything in that class anymore.

For example

, I once took an exam in college where I required 50% out of 100% to pass a course. The scores were split into 70% for final examination and 30% for midterm test. Unfortunately, I scored 30% out of 70% during the final, but I was lucky I had scored 20% out of 30% in the midterm appraisal.

Secondly

, a disadvantage of not assessing pupils regularly is that students may not read their book until it is time for to be tested and

this

may reduce their chances of scoring high marks. In conclusion, the merits of conducting one exam in a class as a mode of checking students' understanding are that it allows the student to focus on doing well in only one test in a semester and

in addition

, it saves the school resources that would have been used if regular tests were conducted.

However

, the cons of

this

trend are that the undergraduate only gets a single opportunity to pass a course and scholars may not read their book until it is time for the exam.