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

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Examinations, in layman’s terms, are graded assessments to determine a student’s knowledge on various topics. Nowadays, it seems that the trend towards assessing students on continual assessments are increasing as compared to having exams. It is beneficial as lesser stress is induced on these students as they are only required to excel in the final exams. At the same
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, teachers are unable to gauge the understanding of their pupils, unlike continuous assessments which allow them to. Certainly, evaluating students based on examinations can be a drawback as
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system does not grade the true ability of their knowledge on the topics tested. To exemplify, exams occur only at the end of the year when teachers have completed the syllabus of the module, whereas, tertiary education – Colleges, Polytechnic, University have tests done bi-weekly.
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way, it enables teachers to view the constant effort and the diligence of the students.
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, it is conclusively clear that the lecturers can have a better overview of the pupil’s ability to grasp the concepts taught in class when assessments are conducted
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of the one-
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examination. Yet, students taking exams subject to lesser stress.
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, rather than exams, there is an increase in workload when taking continual assessments. On top of the need to study for tests, lecturers give out projects.
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, the majority of the students are subjected to immense pressure and often pull an all-nighter to finish off their assignments. Typically,
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occurs when one advances towards higher education levels, and most often, these pupils lose the motivation to study. Henceforth, isn’t it better for students to progress at a pace where they find most comfortable before sitting for examinations where lesser stress is felt?
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, students sitting for examinations have more
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to prepare.
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, in Singapore, secondary school pupils have the entire 4 to 5 years to prepare and do well for the important examination, O’ levels. But, many argue that doing away with
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a system has its pros as students are not able to score by luck when they do
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-minute studying. Yes, one
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may happen, but not all the
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. It deters students from cramming as
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is highly negative for employers as well as society as a whole to have
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young graduates with little or absolutely no knowledge of their subjects. To conclude, it is advantageous to use examinations as students are subjected to lesser pressure and have a long
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to revise for their examinations.
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the case, unlike tests, lecturers are unable to evaluate the student’s true ability in grasping the key concepts of the lesson and sometimes, students may be able to score well in exams even though they study until the very
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minute. Ultimately, be it ungraded tests or graded assignments, undergraduates need to plan out their
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and put in constant efforts to be able to score well in their finals.
Submitted by Isabelle Chua on

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Answer the 'Advantages and Disadvantages' topic

IELTS advantages and disadvantages questions normally give you a statement and ask you to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of that statement.

Answer structure for the type of essay

  • Introduction
  • Body paragraph 1 – advantages
  • Body paragraph 2 – disadvantages
  • Conclusion

Examples to start your body paragraph:

  • The main advantage is...
  • The disadvantage of this...
  • The main benefit...
  • Despite these advantages...
  • One possible drawback...

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