Advantages and Disadvantages of Exams for School Students

The word “Exam” is the nightmare of the lives for most of the students. They bring a lot of stress, anxiety, and frustration with them. If you ask a school student that whether they want to take an examination or not, I am damn confident that majority would say “NO”. The exam is a kind of irritating word among students. So, this time I am going to point out what are the advantages and disadvantages of exams for school students.

Exams are considered as a source of grading the capabilities of students. It is a standard system to test knowledge which is being practiced in almost all schools. It is the fear of both, bright and weak students.  You like it or not but you have to take exams every year because there is no other system being introduced by experts yet.

There are advantages and disadvantages of exams for school students. Why do I target only school students? It is because the grading points and ranking systems affect many school students compared to university or college students.

What I’m expecting is, the government of each country has to consider and make some slight changes in school examination system. It is not an easy job, but many students would welcome this change for sure. Alright, without talking much let’s have a look the types of exams and advantages and disadvantages of exams for school students.
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There are different types of exams in order to check the learning ability of students. Mainly there are two types of exams

1. Objective Type – It includes MCQ’s, true/false, short questions etc.

• Multiple Choice exams
  These types of exams are also known as “MCQ’s”. In these exams, candidates are given with different options, with a question. These types of exams are used to check your ability to recall and connecting the correct information with the question. You have to select the correct statement from several given statements.
• True/False
  In these types of exams, different statements are given, which can be correct or not. You can determine the correct statement or wrong statement easily if you have studied the whole course thoroughly and attentively. Sometimes, these type of questions includes “Not Given” statement along with the True or False statement. Mostly ‘Not Given’ includes for college or university level examinations. Because it is little trickier than only True/False questions. These kind of questions are the best for checking your ability to recall.
• Short questions
  In these types of question, the candidate is required to write two or three lined answers. The purpose of these questions is to check whether the students have memorized and cover all the area of the subject or not.

2. Subjective Type – It includes essays, open book or takes home exams, case-based or problem-based etc.

• Essay Exams
  In this exam, you have to provide information about the given topic. There is no hard and fast rule, regarding the length of these types of exams. Sometimes students may be given options. For instance, they may be given 2-3 different topics and they should have to pick one among them. Before writing such types of essays you must have background information about the topic. Also, you should have some idea of the content of the essay.
• Open book exams
  These types of exams are slightly different from the other exams. Because you don’t have to thoroughly revise or memorize your entire course while taking these exams. All of your textbooks and notes are with you and you can complete this exam with the help of them. Since it is an open book exam, the examiner will definitely expect the answer in more detail. The best tip is to organize all your lectures and notes properly so you will not miss any important points. Also, the proper attention during the class is also essential. Since it’s open book exam, this exam restricts under a certain time limit and more chances that you won’t have enough time to complete the exam. So more practice within the time limit will help you to succeed this type of examination.
• Case-based/ problem-based exams
  These types of exams are basically designed to evaluate how well you can respond and handle a certain situation. They are also one of the best ways of evaluating your analytical skills. They focus on how your brain works rather than how much information you have. For these type of exams, you should very good at memorizing theories and formulas. They check how well expert you are in applying your knowledge.

Alright, now it is time to move on to the advantages and disadvantages of exams for school students.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Exams

Advantages of Exams

1. Exams help the individuals in broadening knowledge
Exams are a fair way of telling the individuals how much knowledge they have of the respective course or subject. It encourages them to work hard and learn. They try to gain more and more knowledge.

Just imagine a school student without any examinations. If there are no examinations, they won’t study at home at any time. They would only focus on playing play stations, Xbox game, Wii games at all the time except their school hours. Playing games every time or watching TV all the time definitely diminish the knowledge of school children. So end of the day their brain have full of TV shows and Games names instead of knowledge for their future job. In this case, exams are essential in order to regulate school students and make them concentrate on studies at home.

2. Create competition
Exams also create competition among the individuals, which push them to acquire more knowledge. It also pushes the competitors to give their best. In the current world, competition is in everywhere. If you become a president, there is a competition, if you become a general manager, there is a competition, if you become a school principal, there is a competition, if you want to become a gold medalist, there is a competition. Without competition, it is hard to survive in this world. So, it is good to create competition among school students and you can make that possible by hold examinations in different stages.

3. Scholarships and bright future
If an individual works hard and maintaining the good grades, he/she will get scholarships and chances for studying at prestigious institutes around the world. Those best institutes and universities will make them get a good job that will ultimately result in having bright future and luxurious lifestyle.

Basically, only college and university students get scholarships and follow their higher studies in the best universities. But nowadays this scholarship scenario comes in schools as well. Even a school student can get the scholarship and follow their studies abroad.

So having exams among school students can help to pick up the few intelligent and provide them with certain kind of scholarship. The students who got scholarship can able follow their studies at any schools around the world with free of charge or with the half payment.

4. Develops personality and confidence
Knowledge not only helps to get good grades in exams but also helps to develop the personality. The individuals become more confident and expert in their respective fields. Exams always raise a kid with full of confidence. When school children attempt the exams in every stage, they will free from panic and grow up with full of positive mindset which helps the most when they going to face interviews in their future career. So exams surely help any school kid with more confidence and personality.

Disadvantages of Exams

1. Stress and anxiety
The exam season brings a lot of stress and anxiety with it. Many students are not able to memorize due to the increased level of anxiety and stress. Some may face difficulties in concentrating on studies. Since the school students do not grow enough to face such stressful situations, they will get panic and be trembling.

Some countries especially Asian countries set up the question paper harder than a student think. It may bring more anxiety and stress to a school student. School kids especially primary school kids having a playing mind. It is really hard to focus on studies at their age. So it’s very important to think about examinations for little school kids.

2. Not a fair way of testing someone’s knowledge
Three hours or one and a half hour exam is not enough to judge the skills of an individual. There is a possibility that one cannot perform well during the exam.

A student may forget the answer at the exam hall because of anxiety or suffer from illness. It’s like a test match and T20 cricket match. You can find a talented batsman or bowler only in test matches. In a T20 cricket match, a player with luck can score runs or take wickets. Likewise, you cannot assume a student’s real talent with just one or two exams. The exams are not only the way to test the knowledge of a school student.

3. Comparison among students
Every individual has a different personality and knowledge from others and every individual is capable of something. Teachers and parents should understand that. Parents always compare their kids with other kids. This would happen mainly when exam results came. It is not a good idea mom and dad. Students will become depressed and lose their self-confidence.

There is a difference between comparison and competition. As I mentioned in the advantages, competition is good for school kids. But when they compare themselves with another student the problem will raise. The comparison is not good for their future life.

Exams may push the students to compare with each other which would ruin their life gradually. This is one of the main disadvantages to held exams in school.

4. Cramming
In order to get good grades, students trying hard to memorize the subjects which they are being taught in schools. It would limit the amount of knowledge, the students are acquiring.

Most of the students begin to cram the course, without understanding it properly.  They may get good grades at school, but cramming will never help them in practical field as their concepts are not cleared completely. This is why the recruiting companies focus more on experience rather than the qualifications.

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In the end, no one can deny the importance of exams but our system of taking the exams needs to be revised. The main focus should be on understanding the concepts and attaining knowledge rather than getting good grades in exams.

If someone fails in the exam it doesn’t mean that kid is capable of nothing. They will surely have some other skills.

I would say, exams are essential in order to study hard, compete with others, and step into a high position. But the exams for school children especially for primary school children is not must.  Instead, you can do more practice sessions and allow their brain to build up with practical knowledge.

I hope you understand the advantages and disadvantages of exams for school students. If you have any suggestions and thoughts write that in the comment box below. Also, you can share this post with your friends and family by clicking one of the social share buttons below.