Today hasn't been the best day for me today here in academia, and that's because of one thing, an exam.
Earlier on I went to go sit my first exam that I've had at this university and I have to be honest and say I really don't think it went that well. I always worry about exams and cram last minute even if I know I'll fly through but today was quite different. The main reason today went quite bad was not because I didn't revise, it was because I transfered into this university. I spent a lot of time going over the things we learnt last term but what I seemed to lack was a lot of the basic background knowledge and key words that the other students picked up over the last couple of years. Obviously these kinds of things didn't get repeated this year because we're third years, and for the others that stuff should be common knowledge, and that's where I think I fell short.
Moving on from today though because you know, what will be will be and all that jazz, there's nothing that can be done about it now. What this made me think about again however, is about the uses of exams and how they maybe perhaps becoming slightly outdated.
Today it seems that the only real purpose for exams are as a tool to measure how well students are doing, and that's it, to determine someone's grade. Other forms of examination however such as coursework, and reports, seem to go further than this, to actually teaching you how to do things that have real world applications.
For instance, when was the last time you heard someone's boss say, "I'd like that report on my desk by Monday", compared to, "on Monday I am going to come back and get you to answer a question out of a set of four about the work you've been doing for the last month"... "and by the way, you'll have forty five minutes to write it, with no access to your files or the internet and I'll be stood here the whole time"?
I never really liked exams, especially compared to coursework, but before they at least seemed to have some kind of purpose. Now when I think about it though, is there not a better way, some other way to gage someone's mark and provide them with a skill that will benefit them. Also I get why it is slightly better to not have outside assistance for this kind of exam, because you don't want to put too much reliance on the internet etc, but people don't usually cram for stuff they might need to know for work either. If people need help they will ask or seek it out themselves. Plus with technology today we do have knowledge at our fingertips, why not embrace the use of it.
Oddly a lot of these thoughts were going through my head as I was waiting for my exam to start. That last thought as I was reading the piece of paper we get given saying to hand in all phones, to no wallets and stuff on you, etc. This part made me think, what happens when more people buy smart watches, or if they start putting prescription lenses in Google glasses? Will examiners have to tell you to take your 'watches' off and to write without glasses on?
Just some food for thought really. I won't hopefully have to endure exams for much longer but it will be interesting to see what happens with the development of exams in the future, will they stay as they are, will they change, or will they just die out?
