The term examination
The term examination is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, (2019) as the process of assessing an individual’s skills and knowledge through written or oral questions as well as practical tasks. Examinations in higher education are significant to assess the capacity of learning for a student. Recently, there have been many emphases on abolishing examination, especially in higher learning institutions. Most students have tension over examinations: it changes them from happy beings to nervous and frustrated. However, examinations have been a major part of schooling that students have to undergo in their course of study. The purpose of the examination is to measure a student’s know-how on a given topic. Tests are of different forms where some are designed to test the memory and understanding of the examinee about a specific topic. Higher learning examinations are graded and interpreted according to the criterion, which is established mostly through statistical analysis (Thissen, 2001). Some students have to read overnight if the examination is on the next day.
The first published motion on exams abolishment was from Australia’s Macquarie University back in 2011. The Dean argued that “students can probably achieve more to their potential without the pressure of examination (Tapley, 2016).” The major argument behind exams abolishment is the negative psychological impact they have on students. Most students find examinations threatening and causing anxiety. Students accumulate negative thoughts and depreciating self-statements common during assessment which affects their performance. Such anxiety affects the student physically in terms of tensed muscles and trembling as well as behaviour wise which affects their study skills. An experiment on the impacts of examination stress shows that students’ anticipation for the examination harms their sleep and eating habits. Test related anxiety would lead to severe impacts on test outcome.
On the contrary, some form of stress in life have contributed to a positive impact on results, which would also apply to student’s examination. Stress can be part of a student’s motivation during the exam period. According to Tapley, it becomes easier for students to retain examinations knowledge when they are faced with acute stress (Tapley, 2016). In most cases, students approach examination unprepared, which leads to their anxiety, while those who are ready for the test remain calm and anxious free. Other scholars have thought that if examinations are so stressful, the students’ needs to be engaged in more coursework which is deemed to be less stressful. Although, it is important to consider that even coursework is associated with stress just like tests.
Another criticism of examinations in higher education is the misuse, unlike other assessment tasks within the course work. “Tests are set to showcase the extent of know-how a student has over a given topic, which would be hard to determine in other course assessments such as assignments (Van Bergen, 2017).” Exams allow students to retrieve knowledge from memory and apply it on the spot, as in most real-life professions. But, the way exams are delivered in higher learning is questionable. Most exam questions only test what the student can recall, but not a deeper understanding of the subject. It occurs when teachers prepare tests hurriedly or borrow exam questions from previous years or test banks. The questions fail to focus on deeper understanding or higher-order of thinking, which demands that the student must have disciplinary knowledge and the ability to apply it. Abandonment of examinations is not the way to go, but teachers should evaluate their testing techniques. Examinations should carry more meaningful facts to ensure the students gain from learning.