Is an Exam Necessary or Not?

                      吴玉红

Just a few days before the midterm exam, I asked some students about the question: “ Do you think the exam is necessary or not?” Some students thought that it was not necessary, especially for students in the vocational schools. Because most of them are always cheating in the exams.

It sounds true. Because an untrue score is not the purpose of an exam, not what an exam really means. An untrue score is a big cheat. He will not only cheat the students themselves, cheat the teachers, but also cheat the parents.

Maybe he can cheat himself with the high score, deceiving himself into believing that he has mastered the course, and make no more efforts. Because most people may have the thoughts: Since I can get high score in the exam each time by cheating, why need I take the trouble to study hard? Why not spend the time playing with other students?

 It’s right. Except the people who study or work for pleasure or for other reasons, who would like to study or work if he knows he can get what he wants? Is it possible, however, for people to get what they want without working? If nobody worked, what would people eat and wear? Can people survive without working?

Since the answer is “ No”, everybody, except the disabled, the young and the old, should work. Then what can you do? What enable you to find a job which can support you and your family,   especially in such a country with a large population and a great number of talented people?

A way by which most people can get a good job is to be an expert in a certain field or subject. In other words, if you want to find a good job, you must be more skillful than most people in a certain field. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to find a job. That’s why the students should study hard at school.

Then how do we test how a student have dealt with his/her study?

Of course, an exam will do. To some extent a true score in an exam could suggest how a student have studied a course, so that both the student and the teacher could make adjustments to the methods and plans of his/her study or teaching.

Now you can see how important a true score of an exam is. In a word, an exam is NOT unnecessary, but quite necessary for both students and teachers.