Formal exams are used to assess srudents at the end of each semester in many countries.Why are these exams used by schools and universities? What other types of assessment are possible? Give reasons for your answer along with example.

Formal exams are included in many education systems across the countries to assess

students

' abilities.

This

is often done by the end of a semester when the

students

are being tested on all of the materials that they learned in the previous 6 months.

Although

it is true that most exams occur only once or twice a year. Yet, there are many other mini-assignments that usually

students

have to go through during the semester period.

First,

besides

the

exam

,

students

usually have to write countless amount of essays, group discussions, and presentations. That way, each of these individuals would hopefully have a sufficient mark on their report cards

at the end

of a semester.

For example

, master

students

in the UK are required to join a journal club each week and if they have less than 70% of attendance, they are not allowed to take a formal

exam

. The reasons for

this

are probably

due to

the huge amount of preparations that are required to be done by both teachers and

students

prior to the formal exams. The examiners have to provide sufficient questions for each grade or class and the

students

would have to spend countless hours studying to face an

exam

.

Hence

,

due to

excessive stress levels that impact both parties, it is limited to only once or twice a year.

To conclude

, the formal

exam

is an objective tool to assess one's ability.

However

,

due to

its difficulty, it can not be held often.

Therefore

, other types of assignments are added in order to increase the score of the

students

.