Tests/projects should be the only decisive factors in determining a high school student's grade

"High school Student" is clearly on the title of this entire debate. The point of school is to educate and tests is the most effective way of determining how much a student has learned from a teacher are tests. Nervousness This is a ridiculous argument my opponent has stated time and time again about how school is to prepare students to be effective in real life. Well when will a student to get over there nerves? being nervous is just an excuse and real life situations will not accept excuses. At the end of medical school you still take a test at the end to obtain a medical license, at the end of college a student must pass all their mid terms and finals before being able to get their degree because college professors only care about those tests, at the end of law school you have to take the bar exam to get a license to practice law, they need to pass a driving test to get a drivers license, you even need to pass a test to sell real estate. Life will have a test for everything fail any of these tests, a person cannot get a degree, be a doctor, lawyer, or even drive a car. Teaching a student that there are moments where they cannot fail is more of a wake up to reality than teaching them working hard everyday will get them what they want because it doesn't. Daily work in class and classroom attendance Okay lets say everyone does not go to class and just arrive to the times when there is going to be a test. Well Con let me ask you if kids do not go to school how will they know when the test is? If a teacher was a teacher who chose random times to distribute tests then the student would feel more pressure to go to class everyday on the fear that a test might come at any time. Daily work does not measure anything lets compare it to like P.E if a student dresses everyday but runs a 15minute mile time and cannot reach the minimum requirements to pass a physical exam, should they just pass because they try hard everyday? No, that would be ridiculous you cannot pass a student just because they show effort in everyday work they have to prove it by passing a test. Same for other subjects a child who do not pass algebra tests obviously does not know algebra. Cheating on a test You can cheat on a test okay that is a sure possibility. But at least a test is monitored by an instructor to at least make an attempt to stop you from cheating. Homework is take at home not monitored so the chances of cheating of that is really high. Classwork everyone communicates with each other so they will all just listen to the smartest student to get the answers they need. Classroom attendance and participation should not be a factor to a students grade because some students just do not like to answer questions and attendance is just showing up it does not prove anything about a student's knowledge. The chances of cheating on your daily work is a lot easier than cheating on a test because basically the teacher isn't monitoring it. The point of school is to educate students and tests are universally agreed upon by colleges (since most college professors base their grade on tests) as a way to determine if a student has learned the material. Since high school should prepare students to move onto a higher level which is college they should teach students early on the college system and base their grades on tests.