According to some individuals, exams are not accurate way of examining scholars performance and ought to be replaced by continuous assessment. I am more inclined towards the provided notion, but measuring students performance through exams has its own pragmatic approach and cannot be overlooked.
To begin with, the prime reason behind this is that, one test cannot explain overall performance of student and it causes the fear in learners’ mind which leds to performance pressure. For example, an article which was published in the “The times of India” revealed that significant proportion of students who are stressed due to family issues are often perform bad in tests. Another reason worth mentioning is that continuous assessment like practical learning makes pupil work ready and give them confidence to face different life situations. Moreover, there are some scholars who are not good in study but do well in extracurricular activities. For instance, Sachin Tendulkar is only 10th passout, while has played for team India and also scored 100 centuries.
Some people, however might argue that exams are appropriate way to evaluate students’ knowledge as it provides student a structured curriculum and steps to learn some framework. They also believe that teachers are also beneficial from this process, as they can examine all scholars on same ground, and get insights for every one of them. In addition to this, they also say that when learners know they have exam which is coming, they take study more seriously, build routine and discipline to study so they can perform better in examination and will get more opportunities in future.
In conclusion, although I understand that why some people are not in favour of exams, I firmly believe that schools and universities have to come up with practical learning, and measure student performance on the basis of continuous assessments as well as exams.