In many countries, formal exams are used to assess students' abilities and to judge the success of their education. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using formal exams to assess students' abilities? Do you think that benefits of using formal exams outweigh the drawbacks?

Since the time education was introduced, formal exams have been a preferred method to quantify

students

' knowledge and their ability to retain information. Whether they should be used as the only tool to thoroughly understand a pupil's academic capabilities is a matter of serious debate. In

this

essay, I will outline the pros and cons of using formal tests to evaluate a student's performance

as well as

give my point of view on why the positives surpass the negatives by far. Formal examinations are undeniably a great medium to check

students

' growth and understanding of a

subject

. The subjects that are introduced in schools hold a high value as they are the building blocks of a child's mind in a particular arena;

thus

, examining children on the basics of any

subject

is imperative to see where they stand. All the

students

attending the same classes,

for instance

, should sit for a standardized exam to assess their progress.

Moreover

,

this

would

also

help them to check their ranking in the class. There have been instances where a student who did not perform well in a formal exam had the best knowledge about that

subject

. The stress of an examination hall and the way

such

exams are conducted gets to them and they do not do well under pressure. I scored low in biology,

for instance

, albeit it is my favourite

subject

due to

lack of time and slow handwriting. Thousands of

students

sit under the same circumstances where most of them underperform and are unable to secure good scores despite their comprehensive understanding of that topic.

To conclude

, formal exams are a great tool. I am in favour of them but they should not be used as the only criteria for assessing a student's level of understanding.