Having a Test or Not

In our society, having a test is one important part of school life. Every time when the exam period comes, most students start to be busy for preparing the test. For the public, test seems to be the most effective way to know about students’ learning and degree. However, there are some problems and flaws about the system of examinations. The different voice about tests has existed nowadays－some agree having a test very much and the others think it is useless to have a test and they want to do the same way as the western country, such as America. People start to think that having a test is really appropriate way to prove students’ learning. As a student, I also start to think about this question seriously and think out some situations to show the flaw of examinations.

As a student in Taiwan, I have had so many tests. During the test, I also met some situation, for example, people cheated on the test or let others do the test to instead themselves and so on. Those students did such things for having a good grade; however, the grade was not really belonging to them. If they are not caught by teachers during the test, no one would know that they cheated on the exam. That is really unfair for those who study hard for the course and test. I cannot understand why they want to do these useless and shameful things. Although they get the good grade, they do not learn anything. When they do such things, there will be no value for them to be a student.

In our society, most parents will think having a test is the most effective way to prove their children’s learning. However, through so many events about cheating on the test, I really feel we should think about this system again and seriously. It is not appropriate way to prove students’ learning any more because we cannot know clearly whether students understand and really learn thing from the courses or not. That’s why some people will think the way in the western country may be better to prove students’ learning.

Nowadays, the effect of having a test is very different from the past because more and more students cheat on the test. No matter what reasons for their cheating－for having good grades or passing the courses, etc. The thing I really sure is that the purpose of having a test is not the same from before. Although I will support this system I am used to, there are still too many flaws about the system of tests nowadays. If we want to maintain the original purpose of tests, we should start to have some change and new rules to improve the tests’ system. (466)