Examinations should be banned.

“Examinations should be banned.” Discuss.

1. Briefly describe the existence of examinations in educational systems.
2. Describe the disadvantages of having school examinations.
Examinations may not be an accurate reflection of a student’s ability.
Some students may perform better without pressure.
3. Describe the advantages of having examinations.
There is no better substitute to assess a student’s ability.


School examinations are something which most students dread. Yet, there is hardly any educational system that does not set examinations.

Many feel that examinations should be banned because they test the students’ memory power rather than their analytical or reasoning powers. Such examinations require students only to memorize facts regurgitate them during examinations and conveniently forget them soon after.

Passing examinations could also sometimes be a matter of luck. Lucky student who spots questions accurately will probably do better than one who just studies his books. Moreover, there are some students who perform better when they are not under pressure. These students may panic and perform poorly under examination conditions.

Though reasons for banning examinations may be many, there remains one basic explanation as to why examinations have not been abolished. That is, all educational systems need a standardized method of testing the students’ understanding of what they have learned. No one has thought of a better substitute in that respect. Whether examinations test a student’s memory power or analytical power depends very much on the type of questions asked. Therefore, there is no need to abolish examinations. Rather, examinations could be set such that they truly test the student’s understanding. Some even argue that the students’ ability to withstand pressure during examinations do reflect a certain form of capability.

Furthermore, students need examinations to act as a form of motivation to learn. If examinations were banned, many would become complacent and would not do their best.

In conclusion, it can be said that examinations should not be banned because of the need to assess a student’s ability.

Student Study Just To Pass Examinations. Do You Agree?

Student Study Just To Pass Examinations. Do You Agree?

I agree fully with the above statement. I am a student and I study just to pass the examinations. It seems the same with my schoolmates. We are all only concerned with the examinations. We do not study other things that do not require us to sit for examinations.

The reason that we do not study other things is because we have no time for them. School subjects take up all our time in school and much of our time in school and much of our time of school. Everyday we have to learn so many things whether we like it or not. Lesson continues one after the other with hardly a break. Our brains switch from history to geography to mathematics to science with a speed of light. We manage most of the time, but sometimes it get so tiring to study, and many of us think to put off our study. For me, any initial interest I have in any subject is quickly killed off by the sheer amount of information I have to absorb. No one is allowed to learn his or her own pace. Everyone is force-fed a diet of information regardless whether he or she can cope with it or not (haiz…so pity the one’s who study…).

Then there is always the next examination around the corner. Since very young we have been taught this: passing with flying colors an examination is the best, just passing it is just a normal statement, but failing is very bad indeed. We are expected to pass. Our parents, teachers and all grown-ups applaud us when we pass with flying colors. If we pass they say nothing, but when we failed we are made to fell worthless. I myself have been caned by my mother because I got red marks in my report card (but in secondary I have improved better!).

No one wants to be considered worthless or be punished for failure, but that is what the world is. So we become obsessed with examinations. We study because we do not want to fail. I have heard some teachers’ say that we should study to acquire in my years in school is that if I fail I am finished. I have to pass with flying colors to prove that I am not worthless.

That is how I feel. For some of my classmates who cannot cope well with the workload, they simply give up studying in some subjects. They are already marked as failures by the teachers so they see no point in studying anymore ,but some teacher always teaches them, help them on their homework, support them but the hard work seems have no effect on them, maybe they are meant to failed. Lucky I do not fall in that category. I still study and do my homework as diligently as I can, but I do these things with only one thing in mind and that is: I have to pass my examinations with flying colors.

So the students study very hard indeed. Passing means success in the world. Failure is unspeakable. The fact remains that they study not for the sake of knowledge but only so that they can pass the next examinations. I am no different from them.

Proficiency Examinations – who needs them?

Proficiency Examinations – who needs them?

“I’m so frustrated!” These were the words of a friend of mine the other day, and international students on an F-1 visa studying at this university. Although he is a junior in electrical engineering and doing well in his engineering courses, he has again failed the English Department’s proficiency examination in composition. And he is not the only one. I know several international students can pass differential calculus with no-problem, but cannot seem to get out of freshman English, you must be able to write a 500-word essay in fifty minutes with no more than two “major” errors and five “minor” errors. While most native speakers of English manage to do this after two or three semesters of freshman English, non-native speakers have much more difficult time. The reason for this is obvious. Non-native speakers needs to spend some of their fifty minutes looking up new vocabulary words, carefully going over grammar constructions, and looking everywhere for a missing third-person S. While international students may have some more original ideas than native speakers, they may fail for superficial grammatical reasons. This seems very unfair to me. It seems clear that international students should be considered special cases, and therefore the composition proficiency requirements as now stated should not apply.

The case of international students at an American university is indeed special. First, most international students are using English as their second language. When it comes to writing a composition, international students using a second language require more time than native speakers. International students must spend part of their precious fifty minutes looking up words, checking over grammar constructions, and rephrasing tricky idioms. Furthermore, the composition proficiency exam is biased against international students. As you know, it counts grammar errors, which often have nothing to do with meaning. A good example of this is the complement after verbs. Often international students have very good ideas and concentrate on expressing them. Then they fail the test because they use an “ing” participle instead of an infinitive. For most American speakers of English, the complements after verbs are automatic; they do not have to think about them at all. Even if native speakers do not have very good ideas, they can still pass the test because they do not make any grammar errors. Therefore, it seems to me that international students should not be judged so severely on grammar errors, but should be judged more on the quality of their ideas.

My opponents might argue that international students need the level of English proficiency indicated by the exam to get through their other courses. They fear that international students will fail their math, science, history, psychology courses if they cannot write compositions. This is just not true. First, 75% of international students are majoring in math and science. In these classes, professors do problems on the board or demonstrations in the laboratory. Virtually no English composition skills are necessary. For further proof, I can give several more examples, like my friend above, who are proving every day that they can do very well (A’s and B’s) in their math and science courses without having passed the composition test. It seems clear that international students do not need to write English as well as my opponents think they do. But what about history and psychology courses, courses that normally require a certain amount of writing skills? Here, too, I can easily show that the proficiency level demanded on the test is not necessary. On the sophomore level, most introductory courses in history courses in history and psychology are mass lecture courses in which multiple choice tests, not essay tests, are given. As long as international students can read the textbooks and tape record the lectures, they can most likely pass these courses with no more writhing than a circle around the correct letter. The level of proficiency that the composition test requires is simply not necessary for most international students to pass courses in an American university.

Perhaps one may argue that the proficiency requirements are not necessary for American students, either. However, here I must point out several things. First, part of the point of writing composition is to express oneself well in language. Since English is the first language for most Americans, they will surely need to have this skill in their native language. And because most native speakers rarely study composition thoroughly in high school, they really need a thorough study of it at the college level. (Of course, if they have studied it in high school, they can generally pass the test with no problem.) On the other hand, many international students have studied composition in their own language quite thoroughly in high school. If they passed high school, they can already express themselves well in their first language. So, further practice in composition is not necessary. Furthermore, in terms of future use, Americans students might need to write well in English for their careers. But most international students will not need English for their careers when they go back home; they will use their own language. Since they have studied composition in high school, they are most likely adequately prepared in composition skills.

It seems clear, then, that the case of international students at American universities is special. They are using a second language, and this fact should be taken into consideration when the English Department reads the final proficiency tests. Further, since the level of proficiency required on the test is not necessary for most students to pass their courses, I would propose that the standard used to judge international student papers be relaxed or done away with. After all, if students can show that they can pass their other courses, why should the university block their way with superficial but often insurmountable barriers?

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