Scholastic tests are unjust barometers for students’ aptitudes as they are one-off gauges of understanding of the subjects, which may be unfair as psychological factors could come into play. Moreover, students with a clearer perception of the standard methods and types of questions will excel better than others, meaning that scoring well for an examination will not just be based on ability of application for a subject but rather on knowledge of examination skills. Also, the varying views of different markers on a qualitative script may incur a range of possible grades, questioning the validity of the supposedly uniform marking scheme. As such, ability takes a backseat to conditioning. However, a formal stable system is still required for sectoring the society into their different intellectual strata. Every student sits for the same paper with similar schedules, thus the test is still considered impartial on a constricted level.
Examinations are not fair as they are one-off opportunities for students to prove themselves. Students prone to panic will be put at a great disadvantage, as these psychological factors will cause these students to be nervous and blank out during the examination, sabotaging their performance and causing them to score badly despite their sufficient preparation and adequate knowledge. The test will thus be reflecting a distorted gauge of ability. Also, others not so well prepared might even score better as a consequence, reflecting the unfairness of this system of education and of using one-off examinations as barometers to test the students’ understanding. It would thus be much fairer should examinations be carried out in an extended period of time separated into various components, where the students’ potentials, aptitudes and attitudes can be more accurately judged and rewarded.
This system of education encourages practicing past year papers aimed to master these