Formal examinations are the only effective way to assess a student’s performance. Continual assessment such as course work and projects is not a satisfactory way to do this. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Evaluation methods of a pupil performance has always been an area of contention around the world. A plethora number of people argue that formal examinations are a far better way than practical assessments to judge an undergraduate performance. I totally disagree with this statement to a large extent as mentioned below. Assessing student routinely is a more effective way than conducting yearly exams. To begin with, a number of students perform far better in their regular classes on the contrary unfortunately lacks in a pen and paper test. For instance, a brilliant scholar may be unable to perform to the best of his ability due to the fact of ill health. This will eventually hurt his confidence largely and can affect his performance in further exams too. Therefore, assessing the knowledge on the basis of their performance in annual exams alone is not a brilliant idea. Similary, there are those who insist that the traditional way of conducting exams judges the ability effectively. They assert that exam conducting bodies meticulously organize the papers and thus everyone has an equal opportunity to show their mettle in a three-hour exam. While this may be true to a certain extent, I believe that these three hours are not abundance to test undergraduate hard work and the tremendous efforts they put in throughout the year. More crucially, these exams do not assess their soft skills such as teamwork, communication skills and even do not take into account factors like discipline and punctuality. On the other hand, continuous assessment allows teachers to see whether they are progressing. Making them do projects and other activities is also a great way to ensure that they are applying the knowledge they learned in the classroom. To conclude, although conducting exams can tell their performance in a span of three hours, these exams do not take into account specific situations that might affect from performing to the best of their ability. Hence, in my opinion, continuous assessment is a better way to measure the progress of students.