“Change of focus distress the mind”.

“An excess of everything is bad”.

In India, it is increasingly felt that education system is highly examination oriented. Exams and tests are held at regular intervals. Success in the exams is at index of once intelligence. Exams do cause a lot of stress rather it can be said that a student’s academic future simply depends on the marks scored by him. His admission in reputed college depends solely upon his performance in examination.

As a result, students finds studies stressful, monotonous and exasperating. Unachievable targets set by the parents and perceptors, unbearable peer pressure, cut throat competitions makes one question the usefulness of the examination system. In my sense, it is all futile. We cannot deny the fact that it is resulting into spate of suicides, absenteeism and even the percentage of dropouts has increased.

Exams should be cancelled and replaced by less stressful and more fruitful forms of assessments for several reasons including:

1)     They do not define one’s skills and capabilities: Thomas Edison once said: “Tomorrow is my exam but I don’t care, a single paper can’t decide my future” and we all know what Edison achieved is his life, other successful people followed such a path and if they cared much about exams, they surely would not have achieved what they did.

2)     They do not differentiate between students: Exams do not depend on someone’s preparation only, they are also dependent on their physical and mental health, and their social situation; you most luckily would not get a second chance if you developed a diarrhea during exam, such a factor would decide whether you’re among best or worst students no matter how intelligent you are, and how much you prepared for the exam. So you see how unfair the whole system is!

3)     Cheating: The broken educational system values more grades than learning and that what obliged students to try any means –sometimes illegal ones- to pass to the next level, history is full of people who try every trick to cheat at exam time, modern technology also has made it much easier for students to pass their tests with less efforts and students’ last issue nowadays is knowledge.

4)     Stress: Exams take a toll on a student’s body and mind through the forms of stress and anxiety and you might end up in a mental institution. Because of exams, a medical student was caught eating pages from one of their recommended texts since he failed to absorb information from taking his lectures too literally.

It is also felt that examinations don’t prepare students for life. They simply enable the students to become reasonably well informed, fact churning individuals. There should be a system of consistent evaluation throughout the year and, the examinee should not be tested only for facts and information acquired by him but should be tested for life skills. So, the examination system should be abolished instead of examinations being conducted at the end of the academic session.