Notes and guidance

1. Advantages
and
Disadvantages
IzzahSarahSarraHafizahMazni

2. There seems to be an increasing
trend onwards assessing students
through exams rather than continual
assessment.
What are advantages and
disadvantages of exams as a form of
assessment.
Issue/Topic

3. INTRO
– Paraphrase
Nowadays, many countries prefer exam-oriented education to evaluate students’
performance instead of using continual assessment.
• Outline
I believe that this has more drawbacks than benefits.

4. 1st Advantage
– Main Point
Cultivate students to be more disciplined in all aspects
– Elaboration
1. Students practice good time management to study in order to achieve good results
in exams
2. Develop effective learning method
– Example
Pomodoro technique, 20 minutes study with time interval 5 minutes break
– Results
To avoid cramming too much information at a time

5. 2nd Advantage
– Main point
Honesty is grounded in every student’s trait
Elaboration
1. Students are trained to complete the assessment individually without cheating
2. This only can be happened in a strictly invigilated exams, meaning teachers also play an
important role to lead an honest assessment
– Example
Academic dishonesty is punished severely, so students will not will take the risk of cheating
– Result
This will reflect student’s knowledge through their exam’s performance

6. 1st Disadvantage
– Main point
Students tend to memorise rather than understand the lessons
– Explanation
1. Not developing critical thinking skills
2. not retain any knowledge in a long term
– Example
Students only prepare for answering the questions
– Result
they are not really master the topic

7. 2nd Disadvantage
– Main Point
High pressure on students
– Elaboration
1. Competition between gifted and normal students
2. Limited time to revise and prepare for the exams
– Example
In 2015, a depressed student committed suicide after the Additional Mathematics paper during
the national examination
-29% of suicide cases in the UK between 2014 and 2015 were students facing exams or exam
results, four died on an exam day or the day after
Result
Students lose interest in schoolwork and become demotivated

8. Conclusion
– Restate thesis statement
The benefits of examinations are to cultivate students to be disciplined in all
aspects and inculcate trustworthy behaviour. However, it has high inclination
towards drawbacks such as rote learning than understanding and burdening the
students
– Summary
To conclude, exams puts too much pressure on students
– Opinion
If some improvements are made to remove the weaknesses, exams certainly
provide many educational advantages.