The current trend in Education is to move away from traditional exams and instead have a continuous assessment over the school year. What do you think of this trend?

Recent swing in learning is leaning towards the adoption of tests throughout the academic year rather than the normal examination. In my opinion, I believe it is a step in the right direction.

Nevertheless

, a combination of frequent evaluations and the final examination is always better. The main idea behind any type of academic evaluation is to test knowledge and progress of the student. Both continuous assessment and final examination help to achieve

this

.

However

, continuous assessment is preferred these days due to the fact that it encourages students to study frequently in anticipation of a test, which can be weekly or monthly within each term or session.

In addition

, it makes studying a lot less bulky and difficult.

Next

, periodic tests aid, educational facilitators to monitor and pinpoint the areas where a student is lacking and as

such

render the much needed help early on. To illustrate: One of my classmates during our junior secondary days was exceptional in practical aspects of integrated science, but he was unable to replicate

this

feat in the theoretical aspects of the subject. The teacher was able to detect

this

problem of his from our weekly assessments and had him engage in an extra lesson, which led to his improvement. Even though, periodic assessments are becoming more popular, exams are

also

still needed. Its ability to cover a range of contents taught throughout a whole term is employed in measuring the assimilation, retention and understanding capability of students, and

also

to determine the very best among them. In conclusion, both ways of academic evaluation are necessary, but continuous assessment is much more advantageous and should serve as the preferred method.