Are exams a waste of time?

[wonki]

Hey i have been shocked,,,,,,
how can exams be a waste of time!!
The exams show how well you study for a particular period of time. There could be plenty of ways that can prove your level.
But, i do not think there is none as good as exams.

The homework or assignment cannot be the way of criticizing students' level because other people outside of school can help students secretly.

But how about the exams? everyone is doing exams on the same day, same time. Most of all, students have to study for the exams, unless they want to fail.

thank you for reading~~!

[Dale]

exam is a waste of time in Hong Kong
orianted educational system is the cause of such problem
students have their nose in the book and they have no idea on the things around them. Their own job is to memorize all the things and write that things in the exam paper
It's meaningless!
they don't know how useful of the knowledge and how can they use it in their daily life.

[Honey]

Hi!

Exams, exams, exams... They're useful to measure, in certain extent, your competence in any area. Depending on how they're designed, they can let you test your ability or, on the contrary, make you go nuts. :P

That's why I agree with you, Dale: the educational system of our countries could change radically our concept about exams, studies and homework.

It also depends on how you take it: as a challenge, or a trouble. There are different aspects that change our mind about exams :D , including the teacher, the subject, the topic and the number of questions (which usually is large)!


Another interesting question would be
Are exams a friendly actiity to waste time?

I'm sure the answers would be partial, as well.

[cassie]

Exams, as any part of studying whether it be another language or another topic, are an essential part of finding out how much you really know and have learned from the course. If you don't like them, it may be because you haven't made the most of your opportunity to learn that subject. What's the point of trying to learn something if you aren't going to do a check once in a while to see if you really understand what you've been trying to learn?

Would you bake a cake and then not bother to find out if you made a cake that tastes delicious by never eating it?

[konomi&peter]

:D Hi Deanna
We found you!!!!

We think the exam is a small matter in our whole life
Sometiomes we need to take exams, so we have to check our ability oursleves.

We think University enterance exam is a waste of time because we only have to memorise a lot of things that don't need in our future. After exam, we forgot everything.

We have to find another methods to enter University, especially in Asia countries. We think the important thing is what we want to study in University. :P

[cassie]

We think University enterance exam is a waste of time because we only have to memorise a lot of things that don't need in our future. After exam, we forgot everything.

We have to find another methods to enter University, especially in Asia countries. We think the important thing is what we want to study in University. :P

I agree with you there. Taking a test to get into university doesn't make sense. If you are only memorising information that is otherwise unnecessary, why are you taking the test? A better way, I think, is to look at all of your grades when you are in high school. When you are already in university, though, I think exams for each class are very useful.

[SeungAsami]

Exams, as any part of studying whether it be another language or another topic, are an essential part of finding out how much you really know and have learned from the course. If you don't like them, it may be because you haven't made the most of your opportunity to learn that subject. What's the point of trying to learn something if you aren't going to do a check once in a while to see if you really understand what you've been trying to learn?

Would you bake a cake and then not bother to find out if you made a cake that tastes delicious by never eating it?

We agree with you because taking exams are necessary to know how much we really know and have learned from our classes.
However,exams make us very nervous and stressful.Sometimes,we have to do many things all day and stay up all night....
Some of students care about exams too much!!
For example in Korea when students fail the exam for entering University, sometimes they suicide. It's so terrible!!
Exams are important but we think the progress is the most important thing.Teachers should not care only about exams.

[SeungAsami]

:D Hi Deanna
We found you!!!!

We think the exam is a small matter in our whole life
Sometiomes we need to take exams, so we have to check our ability oursleves.

We think University enterance exam is a waste of time because we only have to memorise a lot of things that don't need in our future. After exam, we forgot everything.

We have to find another methods to enter University, especially in Asia countries. We think the important thing is what we want to study in University. :P

I agree that most students forget evrything after taking exams!!
It's true.We study hard just for exams.
After that,it's easy to forget because we concentrate to mark good scores.

[konomi&peter]

:D Hi, everyone!
I think exams are important to know your level
You know, all of the students hate exams,
but if there were not exams, how can we measure our ablities
Yes, I know test time is hard to stand because we are sometime nervous and have to saturate new information.

There is an easy way to take exams
If you prepare a little part everyday, you can be ready for your final test

You're right!!!!
If We study constantly, we can take gooood! score what we want, but the problem is that we don't like study everyday

[Rodrigo Klassen]

in my opinion, it's not exactly a wast of time. but many times it's not fair with the students. it's necessary to create new ways to know how much the student have learned where the teacher participate more of the learning process having a better knowledge about the student level.

[Yan999]

whats an exam? its different in different condition. i would like to specify what i think from my experience.
when i was in the university, its really a burden for me to take an exam, there are too many exams and it means too much for a student, especially seems some exams made no sense for someone, but we have to join it and get a high score, in this case, i think its kind of waisting time. but for other case, exam will help us to know more knowledge, such as some majority cause, its important, exam helped one to review what s/he studied and what s/he gained from it.
when i am in work like now, exams is not really the same meaning as the exam we took before, we always learned a lot from book and experienced it in our work, so its some kind of exams already and its more practical... we can gain more money from it, its more interresting and have more fun.
as what i said, i think its wonderful studying in work and serving for work. its a great exam not wasting time in the society-more risky, more fun.

[Nabulsi]

People often say that testing people by way of examination is not the best way to access the candidate's capability.The best candidate is often not the most intelligent candidate.
But what is the next best alternative? In the absence of any, we have to resort to conducting exams.

[leen@rasel]

dear friend i partialy disagree with you because if there were no exams we could't be able to see how much good we are in a certain subject , therefore , how much effort do we need to improve our selves, yet sometimes they are waste of time if some teachers but not all of them are fair in their correcting

[authorityquery]

I don't agree with you totally. Because if you don't have any exam, how you can check knowledge and you don't have anything to base on to estimate personal abilities??
And for student , exam's coming means it'll encourage students study hard to get a good mark, so that's a good chance for everybody have to review everything they learn, human instinct 's lazy.
However, in the other hands, government should reduce some exams are uneccessary, and don't make students become stress by pressure.
Thanks.

[Etore]

Exams are very important to check the level of the students and provide information to teachers if their method is accurated.

[GiddyGad]

Exams are very important to check the level of the students and provide information to teachers if their method is accurated.

Are you talking about tests, control, or exams.
Tests are inevitable - one needs a stimulus to move on.
Control can be indirect and, actually, a good teacher controls students indirectly so they didn't even suspect they are being controlled.
Exams are for those who decides whether you are appropriate or not - it's the easiest way to wash brains and in this way exams are harmful. Taking into account that they don't prove anything. If a student wants to further his education , say, in America (s)he will have not only to get a TOEFL or Cambridge certificate, (s)he'll have to show an appropriate language command no exams but an interview can show.
Exams only show who will feed on who, who is better and who is worse - it's a system of segregation imposed by societies of "equal possibilities". We are different and you can't equalize what is different by nature.

Exams are EVIL.

Smiles,
GiddyGad

[MissLT]

Exams only show who will feed on who, who is better and who is worse - it's a system of segregation imposed by societies of "equal possibilities". We are different and you can't equalize what is different by nature.

Exams are EVIL.

Smiles,
GiddyGad

No way! Without examinations people go to classes just for getting new information, which they will probably forget it the next day or soon. However, if there are examinations, people have to review their lectures over and over and try to understand them real well, so they will ace their tests. Although tests do show who is better than whom, but this is life-- each individual has his or her own ability to ace the tests. Only idiots or 99% of the case of people who don't review or study for their lectures will get F's.
And what's up with equal possibilities? Are we supposed to?

[reddylee]

I don't agree with that.

[bolina1984]

Are Exams a Waste of Time?

Sometimes.
The only function of exams is to check how well you learned. But you cannot put the theory into practices by taking exams. That's a waste of time.
Aother point is that exams spur you to pay more attention to your studies. To some extent, that's a good thing.
Always remember the saying that "every coin has two sides".

[Shazzam]

For some students exams work like goal setting. They need to have the exams to establish that the work they are doing is on target; or requires more attention.

There are definate benefits from exams for students and teachers. It gives teachers the opportunity to see where students may need more assistance etc....

[someone_cute]

As they have said ...
Exams are very important for us to show our abilities to understand the lessons and to know the clever students from the lazies and give them their marks with out cheating from teachers .. it happened by the way by some teachers ( giving students marks or steal marks from them ) although if the student doesn't deserve that ..
but sometimes I think exams are wasting for time specially when they depend on memorizing .. and we should only have monthly exams at least which means there is no mid term exams or final ..
Teachers also have 2 be merciful because we are suffering from the stress at school

[MissLT]

Well, people who think exams are not necessary are not any smarter or more stupid than people who think exams are necessary when they're given to take one.

[Shazzam]

Well, people who think exams are not necessary are not any smarter or more stupid than people who think exams are necessary when they're given to take one.

:?

[MissLT]

Well, people who think exams are not necessary are not any smarter or more stupid than people who think exams are necessary when they're given to take one.

:?

It means they don't know all the materials if they don't study. Just because they think examinations are not necessary, it does not mean they'll know everything and they'll ace the tests. I believe a person only thinks exams are not necessary to be taken when s/he could proudly say that s/he has aced every single test that is given out. At that point, exams are truly not needed for them. Otherwise, exams are a good way to review your materials that you've learned. Right?

[DacHuy]

Examinations are important for me. They help me practice some skill, such as preparing, Writing, reporting, so that.
But they make me sotired and waste much time.

[CityYoung]

No exams are very important ,beacuse we check our levels and skills to know if we improve or not .

[DocAndy]

I hate exams!
An exam says nothing what you really can. Thats my oppinion.

In Austria we have notes from 1(best) - 5(worst). My last test was a 4.

You can make the same test 2 times (with different examples). You will get probably different notes.

[trinity19]

i can only say one thing: i learn much more preparing courseworks and reading books than studing for exams. i'm not saying we shouldn't do any exams because there are some things that teachers must be sure we've learnt and the best way of doing it is testing us without the possibility of having copied or anything, but exams shouldn't be the most important thing. sometimes the whole course is tested with an only exam, in my opinion this is very unfair.

[SleepyTear]

In China
What is most important to a student?
EXAMS MARKS MONEY
Though you do perfectly in your homework or other fields,it is the performance of exams that determines whether you're intelligent or not Silly... And maybe, in some sense, it determines your future status in society I find this detestful...as you know the Education System of China,which I think produces Learned Idiots

Personally, I consider that exams are a waste of talents

[pruthvy]

Are exams a waste of time?

i dont think so.exam prooves ones caliber

[KcMurray]

well...exams are definitely not a waste of time becoz the result tells us how much effort we hav put in for the year.....and its important for students to realise that whether they hav paid attentions in class or just wondered around for the whole year...

[mirage]

I am new in this website, hello everybody :)

I will be an english techer next year, I am a universitiy student in one of the countries.

I don t think exams are waste of time.you are tested whether you are good at the subject or not by means of exams.
If teachers aware you are not good at,they teach the subject again in different ways by applying different methods

In addition,if there is no obligation in this teaching environment,anybody won t have a willing to study.

so I advise you to study a lot to be an apprecient person in society

[fahrenheit]

In my opinion exem isn't devil of darkness. If you are bright-thinking, smart, resposable - you will pass your exem even more it would be peasure for doing it. Personaly i have many gaps in my learning, but i try to fill it with well quality knowlegde...

[kathymimi]

exams are not waste of time to some point. at least you can really keep something in your mind if you want to pass the exams, or you may never spend your time in trying remember what you have learned in classes.

[Laxuan]

I think exam is very neccessary
without them you wont know which level you're at and which skills you are bad at, it also help other people to assess you when you apply for jobs.
In the other hand, some people try to use nasty equipment to help them to get good marks in an examination so it isn't really fair for the rest of student.Furthermore, some examiner who recieved money or any other things of the candidate will ignore what they will be doing during the exam.
so an exam always has pros and cons

[samanehkarga]

I think if students are not frightened of the exams it can be a good way to know them-selves much better but if they are stressful because of having an exam it won't be sth useful because they study just to pass the exam not to learn what they study so it depends on the situation to decide if the exams are waist of the time or not

[sharklish]

Well, as an educator I say no, perhaps students see this in a different spectrum.

In my teaching performance I´ve tried to show my students ,in practice , that exams can be fun.
All of these thru at a small pace, giving them the tools to put their own ideas in practice.

I challenge them into new situations, for example the world, techonology and personal topics.
One of the things that they are very clear by know is that one thing is to speak a second language and another it is to sound intelligent in a second one, in this case English.

I do believe, that exams are part of the overall performance that we persue, and as an instructor, I have the interesting and no less challenging responsibility to show them that exams are in a way one of the tools that I have to measure their own ideas.

PD: Our higher mark in Chile is a 7.0. Anyone who has been taught by me has this mark at the beginning of a test. Thru the process of correction some mistakes appear and at the end you keep the highest mark or not.
But the most important thing for my students is to express their ideas in a clear and simple way.


i agree with you .
HugoR
Chile

[hanamichi]

I think exams are good for us.They test our knowledge.However, in my country, there are too many tests and exams in a year and it makes me tired. I think we only need two tests and one exam for each subject in a term.

[engineer]

Hi,

exams are very important to start new step (stage),

thanks

[samento]

Waste of time! No no, I don't think so.
You spend not more than 1-2 hours to take an exam.
So It's don't waste your time.
And if you argue that you must spend more time to prepare yourself before an exam, I would say that you spend times for yourself, not for an exam.
In addition, if you don't have to take an exam, I believe that no body will prepare yourself.

[fortminor]

They are not wast of time, but all of them are so boring . i am always the first one who finishes ! lol...
consequently, everybody thinks i had studied so hard that i answered questions easily!they dont know i become bored when exam!

[tikay]

I just finished school with a large percentage of people who wouldn't even bother to show up to class half the time. they all relied upon the notes of other students and the pre test notes by coming on the right day to class. i dont know how they are going o do in life but I think it is easy to study enough to let some info sink in to your head, then one must rest well and eat well before tests. But then i never had a hard time in school. So who am i to give advise, it is a really hard time for some people. SO they should give tips...how they get by might be more helpful to people.
well I try to help.

[echip]

Students have to study too much nowadays and many exams make them worried! Some of them hate exams (like me), others don't! But, if all exams are waste of time, we won't know what to do after studying! That's the problem!
Ah, i'm terribly sorry if I make all of you annoyed 'coz there are some mistakes in your replies (in grammar or vocabulary), hope you can fix them!
Thanks!

[star*dust]

i agree with Arale in that exams are good tools to measure where ur in the subject that ur studying..its also a good way of forcing students to review wat they studied and thus make it stick in their minds...at least at school!!
on the other hand, wen u leave school and enter the new life of universities, u start to wonder about the usefulness of exams and if there were a better way of grading the students....u c, students now r old enough to know wat they should study and wat may benefit them in life...so should we really force student to study because of an exam??? besides, exams are highly subjective in that its the teacher who chooses the questions and so something maybe important to him but the student really thinks its not which creates a problem. moreover, some of the students are really brilliant in a subject but they cant handle exam stress well.....does that mean that he is not a good student? and y should students be graded basing on the exams they take at the end of the year rather than their participation or understanding throughout the whole course?//

[Thoughts]

Of course, no.Exames can be defined as an instrument of evaluation student's level.They are so important for students in all different stages of studying.The teacher can motivate his (her)students by (daily, weekly,monthly)exame, to improve them & get good marks.Sometimes, daily preparation for any matrial may not be taken in student's care ,hence, exames will play good role to achive one of two aims.The student will do his best effort either to consider the exam a chance to get what he has lost so far, or only to pass the exam itself.Consequently, exames give us a useful benefit.Another importance of exames is obtaining right estimation of student's level.Obviously, students can be classified into different groups according to their scientific positions(their comperehension capacity,their ability to understand...etc..)Finally, achieving motivation & estimation of students will lead to the essentiaal benefit of exames,it is the reinforcing of learning process.

[shadds]

Are exams a waste of time?

NO not at all. Exams are equally important as learning. whatever people learn cannot be evaluated if there are no exams.

[dovilorous]

hi, im a new member here. I had come across this forum page and i thought it was quite interesting.
well, i am from SG where the education system, i would say, is quite demanding. we have busy schedules, but however i must note that other countries may have an even more hectic education schedule. in Singapore, from secondary education onwards, it is extremely independent. Should a student fail to take his/her studies into his/her hands, it would result in bad results during exams. this would result in them hating exams, for these results would have to be shown to their parents. yes, such a scenario is common everywhere. this would be the main problem psychologically. so the saying goes, "once bitten twice shy". everything has its good and bad points to it. but, even if students fail, soem may realise their mistake and pick themselves up from then on and excell in their studies. those who give up on themselves would then have great problems during their academic years ahead. in general, i must say that exams are useful, to gage each student's level of performance and whether they need help in certain areas of their academic studies.

[crystalfrogw]

Exam is a good method to test whether you have grasped the knowledge you have studied and will tell you on which direction you should pay more attention to.
Two resons may contribute to the condition-some of the students think exams terrible or boring.
1. a certain individual test itself is not good but not all exams are bad. for example some exams focus so much on theories or the knowlege which you need to recite instead of testing whether a students can use it into practice.
2. Indeed we must admit some students are afraid of exams because they don't make every effort to grasp what they should know. Learning is always not an easy thing to most of us(not include IQ>120, lol).so during the procedure of studying we may feel boring or exausted. At last in order to find an excause for themselves, they accuse of exams.
:P

[jrkp]

In my opinion, the problem with exams is that they are very subjective. When the teacher is checking it, he/she doesn`t consider your feeling or your health at the moment you took it. It is very difficult to take an exam when you have problems at home or you are sick. Have you ever taken an exam having a running nose or a headache, for example? or when a relative is ill?. I know that If you are facing that kind of situations, you can talk to the teacher and explain it to him/her, but some of them simply don´t care and force you to take it, even though you are not in your prime.

Also, the marks you can get depend on the point of view of the teacher, because sometimes you have to answer what he/she WANTS and not what you have learnt. To make my point clear, I have known cases where you learnt a different way to resolve a problem (a mathematic problem, to be specific)and, despite you have the same result of the teacher, he/she put that answer wrong, only because you don´t use the method he/she has taught you. Besides, Sometimes, teachers are not bias when they are checking the exams. You can find this situations when they are a student´s friend or, in some way, they are related. Do you think a teacher will put a bad mark to his/her own son? or what about his/her niece or godchildren? Or his neighbor?

On the other hand, exams are the only test method I know where teachers have completely control over the students. If teachers give them assignments (homeworks or papers, for example), the odds they will cheat are very high, considering that students have a lot of tools to do that nowadays. (internet for example.

To answer the question, Exams are not a waste of time if teachers apply them fairly.....

[krishan]

I Do't think that the exams are waste of time. We read hole the year. Our parents does not know that how we have Read. Exams shows the students capability of remember. At the end of exams we get result,it shows that our remember power. Exams are the way to proof a student how is he enteligent.[/code][/list]