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.

Some people think it is more useful to assess

students

via

exams

,

while

others believe it's better to assess them through continual marks. Those two concepts have both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, a big advantage of using

exams

for assessment is the time for preparation for the

test

.

Firstly

,

students

can dedicate themselves to spending time getting ready for the

exams

.

Secondly

,

students

can prepare the exact topics that they need for the exam.

This

is a great advantage because teachers almost always teach their

students

topics that won't happen on the

test

. Another example is that

students

can focus more on their weaknesses and fix them rather than studying all the unnecessary topics that the teacher taught them.

However

, assessment through

exams

can be not that good.

Firstly

,

students

can be nervous

while

passing the

test

. They can have some thoughts about what will be if I don't pass that

test

.

Secondly

, during preparation for the

test

,

students

can have some mental problems.

For instance

, some

students

can be depressed or, even worse, make suicide.

Finally

, but not less importantly, some

students

can cheat on that

test

. Nowadays, there are plenty of situations when

students

are caught cheating

while

writing tests. In conclusion, for someone, there are more pros than cons, but, from my point of view, disadvantages are more valuable than advantages,

therefore

I don't agree with the statement that it is better to assess

students

through

exams

, rather than through continuing scores.