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There is a non exam education model called portfolio review. In portfolio review, the whole of a students work such

as home work, essays, projects, special events like this debate, etcetera are evaluated to produce a students grade.

The argument for portfolio review vs.exams is as follows:

Instead of grading students on how well they have memorized a set of answers as the exam model does, portfolio

review allows teachers to evaluate the skills that are truly the hallmark of the educated. These skills include the

ability to creatively evaluate a given data set and form context based conclusions as outcome. I have a computer at

home that can remember the answers to any question and spew the answers out perfectly every time it's asked. Does

anyone wish to argue that my computer has thus proven it has learned and is educated? Would you give my

computer a high school diploma or college degree based on perfect answers to memorized data which is all that

exams actually test?

Students are already partially graded on portfolio review. Exams do not really measure anything involving learning

and education that portfolio review doesn't measure better. I believe that exams are redundant, unnecessary, and

should be banned.

~School examinations are something which most students dread. Yet, there is hardly any educational system that

does not set examinations.

Many feel that examinations should be banned because they test the students memory power rather than their

analytical or reasoning powers. Such examinations require students only to memorize facts regurgitate them during

examinations and conveniently forget them soon after.

Passing examinations could also sometimes be a matter of luck. Lucky student who spots questions accurately will

probably do better than one who just studies his books. Moreover, there are some students who perform better when

they are not under pressure. These students may panic and perform poorly under examination conditions.

Though reasons for banning examinations may be many, there remains one basic explanation as to why

examinations have not been abolished. That is, all educational systems need a standardized method of testing the

students understanding of what they have learned. No one has thought of a better substitute in that respect. Whether

examinations test a students memory power or analytical power depends very much on the type of questions asked.

Therefore, there is no need to abolish examinations. Rather, examinations could be set such that they truly test the

students understanding. Some even argue that the students ability to withstand pressure during examinations do

reflect a certain form of capability.

Furthermore, students need examinations to act as a form of motivation to learn. If examinations were banned, many

would become complacent and would not do their best.

In conclusion, it can be said that examinations should not be banned because of the need to assess a students ability.

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Points in favour of abolishing them:-

*The approach of present examination systems means the beginning of fear, tension, anxiety and stress in theminds of the students under which if a student doesn't performs according to his/her parents expectations may lead

to students even taking the extreme step of ending their life by doing suicide.

*Some people also think that exams are not a reliable test of gauging the ability of the students as luck plays amajor role.

*Present examination system encourage cramming, unnecessary expenditure on help-books and also encourageprivate tuition which has resulted in mushrooming of a large number of tuition shops in every city and even smalltowns by inexperienced persons.

*The present examination system doesn't specify the exact criteria for how the marks are given to students.(No one can deny that external factors can sometimes influence the distribution of marks-- like whether the teacher

was in an angry mood over something in his/her personal life, or whether the teacher was upset with the class and

giving a test to punish them.

*The pressure of performing well is so much that if the student has not studied up to the required standards,he/she even sometimes uses unfair means in the examination hall to copy from a near sitting intelligent student and

get good marks.

Others have also said:

School examinations should be abolished because:

It is impossible to test every aspect of a subject within the short exam time, if a student is lucky and what he studiedfor is tested, he will score higher.

they don't properly assess people's grasp of the subject. You can get higher/lower marks than you deserve. It is impossible to set the questions at the same difficulty every year, if it is easier, he will score higher. It is possible to study the tested subjects for the exam then forget everything and yet score high marks. Some cheaters go undetected and score high marks. Huge (unnecessary) emotional burden, provides stress etc.

Better alternatives include:

put more emphasis on research work

Less stress Instead of cramming info into students' heads, encourage self-learning + make students better at research skills,

these abilities are useful forever and best learnt when young.

But those in favour of school examinations say they serve a useful purpose. Thus, they should not be

abolished because:

Exams make people better at the subject content tested in exams are random, so people study everything since it affects grades, people study harder there is competition, people study harder They help the teacher to know what material the students have not mastered and need to study further They give people important practice in dealing with stress, which can help later on with life's challenges. The examination system has its own benefits. It's like a self-test to see where we are and how good we fare in

something that we do. The purpose of exam has always been a test to let us, human beings, to know our limits and

our standards.

Frankly speaking, who can put his/her hand on their heart and say that they would have learned the lessonsregarding different subjects themselves if the present examination system were not there and didn't made the

students to learn and understand the topics dealing with different subjects to perform at the end of the year. The

ANSWER would be No, They wouldn't have.