“Exams are like a gold star from a flawed system.”

When exams were first cancelled in mid-March due to coronavirus, with no new information on how grades would be generated, I remember the next day at school as pure panic. More than a hundred disillusioned students spouting unanswerable questions about whether their future was still intact. The centre assessment grades caused complete chaos, but in theory and upon appraisal could it be true that a superior education would be generated by not having 100% of a grade rely upon exams?

A fiery rivalry between students fosters the ability an individual has to perform to their fullest potential. In an area such as London where 45% of people progress to higher education, almost 10% more than the UK’s next highest region, it might be a benefit that a spirit of competition is invoked by exams [1]. If it were easy to be the best then perhaps the motivation to succeed would be less.

However, student mental health must be accounted for, manifesting such a contest in teenagers creates extreme anxiety — 15% of GCSE candidates in 2020 might have fallen into the ‘highly test anxious’ category [2]. Feeling anxious is an essential emotion but thousands of on edge, nervous teenagers forms a stress storm.

Even without the onset of anxiety, Anna Larwood-Agapitou, a student in Newham said that “as someone who suffers from headaches I know all too well the horrible situation of feeling unwell whilst taking an important test, but not being unwell enough to skip it.” Students Matusha Sivakumar and Alina Iqbal told me “there can be unlucky days” and “you could have an off day.” Exams do not consider how that student was actually feeling, mentally and physically on the day. Even if the chance of flunking is low, exams seem to induce a high amount of fear and stress in students at the thought of failure. All three pupils felt that a mix of a final exam and some coursework would be more beneficial to soothe and ameliorate stress and fear.

But a final exam gives a student time to sharpen their pencils, brains and skills. Local Redbridge student Sana Patel felt that, “the long hours spent revising for an exam might not always be shown on an initial test. The fact that many students weren’t able to sit their final exams … was frustrating for both the student and teacher who recognised the potential a certain individual had to flourish.”

Yet some students would benefit from year-round testing and other forms of assessment. Another student, Charlotte Hitching, said that she sensed, “other forms of assessment are more likely to be an accurate representation of that person’s ability.” This, for the most part, is true, it points to the education system being somewhat weary, whilst some aspects are timelessly effective, it could easily be more inclusive — the benefits of this inclusion have been seen the astounding education system of countries like Finland [3].

Although most students felt that both a mix of exams and continuous assessments should be championed, some students doubted how effective exams even were. Clementine Jamieson felt that “exams don’t cover all aspects of every topic so it could misrepresent how much you know.” Similarly, Florence Thomas emphasised, “exams are like a drug for any perfectionist because they are an opportunity to condense your value to a grade.” There is no doubt this leads to some of the poor mental health in pupils.

“Exams are like a gold star from a flawed system,” Florence went on to say. It appeared most students positively understood that testing is a part of school life, but an overwhelming verdict pointed to basing an overall grade on an exam as being unjust. The atmosphere of fear and stress-based around scrawling and scratching a pen across an exam script has nurtured an overly competitive environment that can lead to mental and physical health issues. Perhaps it is a matter of inclusivity. A matter of comprehending that students learn differently and maybe the system should be amended so that a final grade is more comprehensive, including different types of assessment, because, as Florence expressed, “continuous assessment rewards the worthy but exams crown the brilliant.”


Bibliography

[1] P. Bolton, “Higher education student numbers,” House of Commons Library, 21 October 2020. [Online]. Available: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7857/ [Accessed 25 October 2020].
[2] A. Dojchinovska, “25+ Alarming UK Exam Stress Statistics for 2020,” Mark Styles, 5 May 2020. [Online]. Available: https://markinstyle.co.uk/exam-stress-statistics/#:~:text=15%25%20of%20GCSE%20students%20may,impact%20on%20pupils'%20mental%20health.. [Accessed 25 October 2020].
[3] M. Colagrossi, “10 reasons why Finland's education system is the best in the world,” World Economic Forum, 10 September 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/10-reasons-why-finlands-education-system-is-the-best-in-the-world. [Accessed 25 September 2020].