The current trend in education is to move away from traditional exams and instead have continuous assessments over the school year. To what extend do you agree or disagree?

It is an obvious fact that examinations play an important part in the teaching and learning process. Many educators have tried to find the most effective way to assess students. Some tend to choose prolonged assessment through the school year rather than semester examinations. Personally, I completely agree with this opinion and will discuss the reasons why in this essay. To begin with, one of the primary reasons for this trend is that continuous assessments are reliable. The fact is that students are assessed throughout the year via assignments, tests and projects. Therefore, the teacher can examine the students’ knowledge and capacity lesson by lesson, and then evaluate their competence more exactly. For example, due to some health issues, a student who performs well during the semester does not get a good final exam result. However, thanks to on-going assessment, the teacher can assess her appropriately. In addition, students’ active involvement in the learning process is one of the positive effects of continuous assessment. If the students are required to take frequent exams, they will now have an incentive to study routinely and get well-prepared learning before classes. Hence, they can not only gain in-depth knowledge but also avoid suffering from psychiatric illnesses such as depression or anxiety. Moreover, this allows both teacher and students to notice the shortcomings of individuals early so that necessary action can be taken timely to help the students. For instance, the teacher gives feedback on students’ oral presentation in order that they are aware of their strengths and weaknesses as well as self-motivated to maximize their learning. To conclude, continuous assessment is an effective method to evaluate students’ performance and can be more valuable than traditional exams in terms of improving the quality of education.