There seems to be an increasing trend towards assessing students through exams rather than continual assessment. What are the advantages and disadvantages of exams as a form of assessment?
In the words of one of the prominent American professors Ken Brain, it is becoming increasingly popular to assess students through exams rather than continual assessment. It is obvious that exams have merits like it is one way that alleviates stress but also is an unfair form of appraisal. Generally, it seems to me that continuous evaluation does not only provide more fair estimates but also improves the overall academic performance.
On the one hand, I understand that assessing through exams can help students to avoid the stress that they may undergo through continuous assessment. In other words, in the examination system, learners do not need to focus throughout the course, so it avoids stress. For example, according to a survey by the ministry of education, the number of dropouts in institutes with continual assessment is three times higher compared to universities with examination system. After the interviews with these students, it was explored that the main reason for dropping out is high study pressure. Therefore, I am convinced that examination assessment is less stressful than continuous evaluation system.
On the other hand, the exam estimation has its downsides, but I suppose the main disadvantage is that evaluation through a sole exam is unfair and this method cannot accurately demonstrate learners' complete knowledge. To put it another way, there are various factors that could adversely affect students on exam day. As a consequence, students who study well may get poor marks. For example, in 2018, 4 students of National University with outstanding academic performance received unsatisfactory grades in their final exams, as a headache prevented them from showing their abilities. Such incidents may prove that one exam cannot evaluate professional knowledge of students.
Clearly, I am convinced that continuous assessment is more effective and a fair form of assessment for the following reasons. Firstly, it is not only the single way to achieve students' stable progress but also improve academic performance as students will steadily study and increase their knowledge.
On the whole, obviously, examination system has both advantages and disadvantages. However, I am certain that continuous assessment leads to more impressive results.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...te professional knowledge of students. Clearly, I am convinced that continuous ...
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, may, so, therefore, well, for example, i suppose, in other words, on the whole, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 13.1623246493 99% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 7.85571142285 115% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 10.4138276553 77% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 7.30460921844 178% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 24.0651302605 141% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 41.0 41.998997996 98% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 8.3376753507 240% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1944.0 1615.20841683 120% => OK
No of words: 353.0 315.596192385 112% => OK
Chars per words: 5.50708215297 5.12529762239 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.33454660006 4.20363070211 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.02921226147 2.80592935109 108% => OK
Unique words: 198.0 176.041082164 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.560906515581 0.561755894193 100% => OK
syllable_count: 601.2 506.74238477 119% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.60771543086 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 5.43587174349 166% => OK
Article: 2.0 2.52805611222 79% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.10420841683 143% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 0.809619238477 124% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.76152304609 210% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 16.0721442886 106% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 20.2975951904 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.3771584081 49.4020404114 92% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.352941176 106.682146367 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.7647058824 20.7667163134 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.82352941176 7.06120827912 111% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.38176352705 114% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.01903807615 20% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.67935871743 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 3.9879759519 201% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 3.4128256513 29% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.360143146906 0.244688304435 147% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.108128800436 0.084324248473 128% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0960077885669 0.0667982634062 144% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.193002436063 0.151304729494 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0697649110178 0.056905535591 123% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.9 13.0946893788 114% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.72 50.2224549098 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.44779559118 118% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 11.3001002004 109% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.68 12.4159519038 118% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.1 8.58950901804 106% => OK
difficult_words: 100.0 78.4519038076 127% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 9.78957915832 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.1190380762 99% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 10.7795591182 139% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 78.6516853933 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 7.0 Out of 9
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.