Are exams and tests a good way to see how much kids have learned?

[Shortie]

In schools, we all know there are things such as end-of-year and even end-of-school exams and at a certain point of a child's education, they will take random mock tests as well to see how well they are learning and where they need to improve.

We all know though that you can often have bad days and that can happen on exam and test days leaving you not doing as well as you would do normally. These results usually reflect how much you have learned and determine what level you should be in to learn in school.

Are exams and tests a good way to see how much kids are learning or have learned?

 

[~ True Legend ~]

I personally believe that coursework is much more effective as we don't memorise things in the real world; rather we problem-solve.
Obviously that raises the possibility of cheating.

Perhaps open-book exams with a problem-solving emphasis would be a more effective approach to assessing the child's skills? With access to the internet, skills generally beats knowledge for the most part.

I've found that questions in exams often have a pattern having been repeated from past papers with some variation. We don't memorise a certain approach in the real world; we have to adapt and think outside the box.

 

[Shortie]

I personally believe that coursework is much more effective as we don't memorise things in the real world; rather we problem-solve.
Obviously that raises the possibility of cheating.

Perhaps open-book exams with a problem-solving emphasis would be a more effective approach to assessing the child's skills? With access to the internet, skills generally beats knowledge for the most part.

I've found that questions in exams often have a pattern having been repeated from past papers with some variation. We don't memorise a certain approach in the real world; we have to adapt and think outside the box.

I actually found out the other day from my children's school that now the students have predicted grades and those are the grades they are predicted to get in their GCSE exams at the end of their school life. These predicted grades are taken from the SATS that they take in year 6.

My 15-year-old son who is due to take his GCSE exams in 2024 was able to complete his SATS but my youngest who will be taking his GCSE in 2025 was unable to complete his SATS in year six due to COVID and the lockdown.

The predicted grades do not take anything into account from their mock exams, real exams that they do through their school years from year 7 to 11 and that was quite an eye opener.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

I actually found out the other day from my children's school that now the students have predicted grades and those are the grades they are predicted to get in their GCSE exams at the end of their school life. These predicted grades are taken from the SATS that they take in year 6.

My 15-year-old son who is due to take his GCSE exams in 2024 was able to complete his SATS but my youngest who will be taking his GCSE in 2025 was unable to complete his SATS in year six due to COVID and the lockdown.

The predicted grades do not take anything into account from their mock exams, real exams that they do through their school years from year 7 to 11 and that was quite an eye opener.

Wow. Ppl change a lot as they grow up, their attitudes, study approaches, etc.

 

[King Belieal]

I personally believe that after teaching a child for a period of time, there has to be a way to gauge the comprehension capacity of the child and the effectiveness of your methods.

For me, examinations are meant to keep the child abreast of what they have learned. So many kids won't ever study if there was no exams to scale. There are few isolated cases that things happen and a bright child didn't perform well in exams. As a seasoned teacher, you would know when an exams failure is just a bad days and when it is a complete failure to learn or study.

 

[kirubel]

Exams don't always accurately reflect a person's performance and knowledge, as demonstrated by my friend who gets anxious on test day and finds it difficult to concentrate. Although he does well in the classroom and does well in his academic studies, his exam performance suffers due to distractions, which lowers his grade.

 

[saoussen5765]

I can confirm this is not true. Imagine that there are 3 classes. Then the first class will sit for the exam from 8 to 10. The second is from 10 to 12. The third is from 12 to 14. The teacher prepares the same exam for the three classes. This means people who sit for exams from 8 to 10 could tell the questions to the students who are taking exams from 10 to 12 and the same to the third class. A teacher rarely makes an effort to make three kinds of exams.

 

[Demon_skeith]

Ehhh, yes and no. Yes it can show what they know, but it might not properly reflect their knowledge due to the stress of the test.

 

[itsmejob]

The exams or tests for some reasons were designed to really gauge students knowledge. Whether a particular lesson is memorized or not, still people should have takeaways from their daily lessons.

On the other hand, if your major is Physical Education, why a school includes math subjects in the curriculum when it is irrelevant to Physical Education? If you fail the math exam will it affect your major?

I still believe in the practicum part as students are being tested on application of knowledge they learned.

 

[eLdavis]

Back then I used to hate exams and test because I saw it as pure torture. Growing up I have finally been able to understand that it is extremely important we have exams. The truth of the matter is that we would never take things seriously unless we are aware there would be some sort of test.