16th August 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
We’ve always thought that the UK’s exam system isn’t ideal. We’ve always been very reliant on a few exams which count for all, or a large proportion, of a student’s final grade. Compare this to, for example, the American system where students are continually assessed throughout the year and their overall grade is a combination of all of these more frequent exams.
The argument against the UK system is that students can get through the year without really understanding everything, and have to work much harder in the weeks leading up to the final exam. Those students who are good at cramming for exams do well, those who aren’t don’t. Requiring consistent work across the year must be a better way to ask students to study.
We agree with the idea of consistent work, but there’s something interesting about tutoring students for exams. There has been a lot in the news recently about the anxiety created by exams which is an argument against more frequent testing. However, another consideration is something every tutor notices as exam time looms.
Exams mean students focus on doing well in the exam, rather than understanding the course content. Obviously these two things should be the same, but everyone knows they’re not. It’s lovely for a tutor to regularly see a student over the course of a year because the student only wants to understand; it’s proper learning. Closer to exams students think more about the academic “game” of ticking the examiner’s boxes; it’s not as much fun to tutor them.
Our worry is that a system of frequent exams doesn’t allow students time to contemplate what they’re studying and learn properly. The last thing we want is a system where students are constantly anxious and never take the time to understand something fully, but are looking for shortcuts to do well in the exam.