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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?

#trend #students #exams #form
In recent years, the approach of using
exams
 to assess
students
 has risen in popularity over the alternative of continual
assessment
.
This
 essay will highlight
/
illustrate
/
discuss
/
explore both the benefits and drawbacks that result from
such
 an approach. (no need for opinion, did not ask for opinion).
To begin
 with the advantages
/
positives, a crucial advantage that examinations have as a form of
assessment
 is that they leave little room for cheating.
This
 is because
exams
 are usually undertaken in the presence of an invigilator, whose job it is to detect any candidate breaking the rules.
In contrast
, continual
assessment
 increases the risk of plagiarism since assignments are often completed with the help of the internet.
Besides
 reducing cheating,
exams
 are
also
 more time-efficient. As they tend to only appear once or twice per year, they free up more time for
students
 to revise and prepare.
Nevertheless
, assessing
students
 via examinations does present some problems.
For instance
/
for example
, some
students
 are extremely intelligent and creative, but when put under pressure, their minds can go blank. Considering that
exams
 are situations of intensely high pressure, it is no wonder that even the brightest of
students
 sometimes perform poorly. Another significant disadvantage of
this
 system is the narrow range of information that
students
 are tested on. Unlike with continual
assessment
, the small window of time in tests limits how many questions can be asked,
thus
 not testing
students
’ knowledge in full. In conclusion,
although
 formal examinations are beneficial in terms of cutting out cheating and improving efficiency, it is important to consider that they
also
 harm some
students
’ concentration and are arguably not as thorough as continual assessments.
Submitted by dandantotoro on

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Support ideas with relevant, specific examples

Examples make your writing easier to understand by illustrating points more effectively.

Examples, if used properly, not only help you get higher marks for ‘Task Response’ but also for ‘Coherence’.

When giving examples it is best to put them after your main idea or topic sentence. They can be used in the middle of supporting sentences or they can be used to start a new sentence. There is no rule for where exactly to give examples in essays, logically they would come after your main idea/topic sentence or just after a supporting sentence.

Linking words for giving examples:

  • for example
  • for instance
  • to illustrate this
  • to give a clear example
  • such as
  • namely
  • to illustrate
  • take, for example

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