Why Exams or Test Doesn’t Measure Students Intelligence.

Exams or Test are formal test involving answering written or oral questions under a time constraint and usually without access to school materials.

The big difference between a test and an exam is that an exam is more formal then a test. But, sometimes, they are used as synonyms throughout schools and courses.  The test is a tool to measure the knowledge level of your students and adjust the learning material accordingly. Exams are the main mode of assessment for students.

Why Exams or Test Doesn’t Measure Students Intelligence

More often than not, school systems uses exams and  tests to measure students intelligence and it is not fair. This is often a faulty indication of a students intelligence due to various reasons I would be sharing with you. I do not believe that exams are a good way to test the ability of a students.

My first  reason is because often time a student simply crams to pass the exam or test and forgets everything very soon afterward. Also, students learn in different ways and and exam which is one way cannot justify the difference and types of intelligence in students.

Secondly, It is apparent that oftentimes the students have not learned what is being questioned, and multiple choice questions require less cognitive thought than response work, which engages the students in the need to understand the material, gain interest, and interpret the material by using inferential thinking and high-level critical analysis in order to better process ideas.

Many people argue that the uniformity of exams provide an objective and sure way of testing students. The uniformity of exams are not necessarily a positive thing. The uniformity required by exams standardize the interests, capabilities and knowledge absorbed by students and children. This process of mass standardization takes away the uniqueness and curiosity of learning that contributes to the growth of well-rounded, critical thinkers.

Exams and test might be a way to make students work hard but working hard doesn’t necessarily mean that information is being learnt and absorbed. The way exams are structured means that in order to yield good results, students are required to memories information and regurgitate it onto exam papers, but not necessarily understand what they are learning.

An emphasis on exams and test as the primary modes of assessment means that many students are led to focus on cramming and revising information. Preparing for exams rarely gives students the time to absorb the information they are studying, which begs the question – does our education system prioritize the comprehension of knowledge, or test results?

Moreover, exams do not take into account that intelligence is a spectrum, not static. Many students who do not do well under exam conditions are branded as ‘less intelligent’ than those who achieve higher exam results and we forget that those students who do not perform well in exams as less intelligent have a transferable knowledge in other endeavors.

Another factor is that students who don’t study can easily cheat in exam or test. Even if the instructor or examiners are keeping a close eye on students there are several ways students can cheat in exam. They could have outside sources, they could hide information under or on your clothes, and so on. So,  If a student cheat in exam or test, can we measure such student intelligence by his or her bright result? of course not.

Therefore there should be a need to cater for the spectrum of intellect represented by  students, rather than forcing them into exams and test as a measure of their  intelligence and brightness.