Up to the present-day time, it has been the learning result that allowed a graduate to meet the requirements of his following job. Hence, visual study grades, which are mostly represented in writing form, have been adapted as a method of evaluating educational achievement. These kind of so-called ‘pen and paper’ examinations are regarded as a sign of IQ levels of most students and have become prevalent across the globe, particularly in lower learning stages. However, many people, including me, assume that writing tests cannot totally assess students’ abilities.
First and foremost, it every now and then seems unfair and not accurate to grade a student based on his ‘pen and paper’ tests. A plenty of learners, who are better in verbal aspects or endowed with practical bias, will find it difficult to well finish a complex task of writing. It is such a disadvantage for them, which also leads to a regrettably wrong assessment about prospective gifted people working in oral professions such as TV hosts, communicators, tour guides or even potential politicians! Besides, if being tested fully in different skills, not only can learners have themselves opportunies to realize and understand profoundly their real abilities in order to choose the appropriate fields and future careers but also teachers will effectively orientate and advise the students to best enhance their talents and be successful.
Another notable further point in view is that evidently there have been more and more depressing cases of punishment due to students’ non-compliance with the ‘pen and paper’ examination rules. A case in point is that many students are given detentions or even expelled from schools for cheating in exams. Others who are afraid of low marks may deal with this sort of test by rote learning of cramming. What’s more, school learners finding it hard to confidently sit a writing exam will probably participate in some extra coaching classes (known as private tutorials), which cost them a large sum of money as well as time.
In a nutshell, there should be a collaboration between writing and other comprehensive forms of exams so that the educational results of a truly employable person can be best observed and applied. This can be a positive development of learning methods and educational policies.
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