In my life, I’ve already sat for hundreds of exams from primary school to college. Even though I am not an A+ student in most of those, I managed to score an adequate amount of marks, which I can be happy about myself. I’m writing this post not to talk about how well I scored in exams or not to share some studying tips for exams. The purpose of this blog post is to address a huge issue that I believe should change in the examination system. Even though I adapt myself to any kinda exam I have to face, I always questioned the structure of those exam papers. The one question I asked about any exam is whether it is evaluating the knowledge or the memory of the participant. So I would like to continue this post forgetting about school exams and focusing more on college/university exams.
Definitions of Knowledge and Memory
Knowledge: Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, skills, or objects. By most accounts, knowledge can be acquired in many different ways and from many sources, including but not limited to perception, reason, memory, testimony, scientific inquiry, education, and practice. (Wikipedia)
Memory: Memory is the faculty of the brain by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. (Wikipedia)
What Should be Tested in a College/University Examination?
So, this is what I want to talk about in this blog post. When talking about college, is a place that should prepare a student to organize and apply the information to find a solution for a real-world application. In a world where information is available at your fingertips, I think it useless to waste so much time trying to remember all the theories, definitions, proofs of theories, research results, etc. as a college student but what I experienced was that colleges are evaluating students ability to memorize those stuff in exams.
I’m not sure about other countries, so I would like to talk about most of the professionals in my country. I have noticed that most of the graduates working in various industries are only capable of following standard methodology when doing something. They are incapable of making innovative decisions when required. I highly believe that this was caused as a result of the established college education system.
I believe college should be a place that improves the skill of an undergraduate to organize the available information to make a decision or solve a problem instead of a place that teaches them to follow established methods and complete a certain task using that.
What motivated me to write this blog post?
With the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, it has become difficult to conduct physical exams. Therefore the idea of online examinations came into the discussion and the most suitable exam suggested was take-home exams with questions that require innovative answers by applying theories learned and some individual research. This is different from the usual exams we had to sit, where the papers only tested our ability to test the skill of remembering and writing all the theories and proofs of them. Even though the suggested exam method is actually what colleges should conduct in order to improve the actual skills required by the industries, I have noticed a huge resistance from some students and even from some lectures. That’s why I thought of writing this blog post to talk about what I wish college exams need to be like in general in order to support my future.
Cover Image Credit: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/knowledge-is-power-we-must-teach-it-to-our-children/
