Many people believe that formal “pen and paper” examinations are not the best method of assessing educational achievement. Discuss this view and give your own opinion

There are numerous methods of assessing knowledges of examinees, 'pen and paper' being the one that is convenient. Despite of having various plus sides, some experts argue that this method is not sufficient enough for people who attend the exam in order to measure educational achievement. Therefore, they call for reconsideration of the role of examinations. Possessing a number of certain advantages, formal examinations can guarantee fairness and equality by imposing the same condition on the test-takers. There are also various question structures - multiple choice, essay assessment- that ensure exam candidates can be evaluated properly. On the other hand, examination has also plenty of drawbacks that some strongly believe this sort of measurement of learning is not accurate way to evaluate candidates' knowledge. As there are individual learning styles for each person, assessing educational knowledge should be inherent. Test-wise people can easily succeed, whilst some struggle to demonstrate their ability with pen and paper. In addition, formal traditional exams can be stressful and lead people even to mental disorders. A number of measures should be taken to address these concerns. Firstly, Test of knowledge should match educational environmentas. Secondly as already mentioned above, individual methods of learning should be taken into account in order to be aware of the accurate results. Other types of assessments should also be considered: to measure teamwork ability, research, communication skills. To recapitulate, exams have a great role to ensure a proper, accurate and objective evaluation of knowledge, however there are still many gaps are needed assessing knowledge to be designed carefully in order to complete some unsatisfied factors concerned.