Exams or course work assessment, which do you prefer out of interest?

[pinklady]

I don't know about you, but the memory of sitting a timed exam in my school days fills the heart with terror and dread, to this day still! I am a person of reasonable intelligence and learning capacity with an interest in life and its many subjects to study, but when it's time to be tested under traditional exam conditions all the knowledge that I have acquired over the training course can easily become locked away in an inaccessible part of my brain that my nerves wont let me have the key to. I know I'm not alone in this.

Is judging a persons abilities on one test on one day really fair? we can all have a bad day for whatever reason, or perhaps we might be the kind that just crumbles with nerves knowing that we have a time limit to work to, even though you have the knowledge and skills and could prove it perfectly well the day before without the pressure on.

I know that pressure is part of life and we have to prove to others that we can cope with it, but what future situation could we possibly find ourselves in like that? I do think that there is a strong argument for coursework based qualifications, where students are ticked off and assessed as they go though the course and conquer each section, leading to a final certificate and qualification like with NVQ'S. This would give every student a chance to work at their own pace and show the best of themselves, because some people are very able but no good at exam situations. Just a thought.

 

[mmmmmmmmm]

I definitely preferred doing coursework. It gives you a lot more freedom to work as you choose. With coursework, you're able to twist your given task into something that interests you. I didn't enjoy taking ICT, but I did my coursework on something I found interesting, so I ended up with a pretty good grade.

Exams don't really work anyway. I got an A* in Japanese GCSE. Do I remember any of it? No! I remembered exactly what I needed for my exam, then forgot about it the day after. Coursework encourages more long term learning and deeper understanding.

 

[Tillymint]

I didn't always perform well in exams but I don't like the way the GCSE's and A'Levels are done now. I agree that some coursework assessment is good but only when balanced with exams. If all the work is assessed and can be repeatedly retaken two things are happening: firstly, results will improve and seeing them improve young people will aspire to have the best results to get into the best universities and resubmit their work until they do, putting their life on hold, costing their parent's money and then ultimately giving themselves a false sense of their own ability; secondly, in life you can't retake and rework until you get it right and there are situations where you have to overcome your nerves (interviews, presentations, assessments etc.) and so the experience of sitting exams will have prepared you for this. Let's keep coursework but let's do exams as well and let's limit the number of times young people can revisit their work....otherwise we'll be introducing an A** grade soon.