Prompt: There seems to be an increasing trend towards assessing students through exams rather than through continual assessment. What are the advantages and disadvantages of exams as a form of assessment?

It seems to be a growing trend that students are judged through final exams rather than continuous assessments. This can have both advantages and drawbacks. Ċ On the one hand, it is beneficial for students to be assessed by final exams instead of continuous assessment. This is predicated on the assumption that students who have to take one exam throughout their course tend to be under less pressure than those who receive a continuous assessment. Since final exams take place only at the end of a course, students may not be required to spend too much time on revision. This can enable them to have more spare time for their hobbies, extracurricular activities, or part-time jobs, which seem to be less stressful than academic knowledge. Ċ On the other hand, it seems to be a demanding job for teachers to evaluate a student's capability just by one test. A good student may have poor performance on his test day due to many unexpected problems related to physical or mental health. For example, a brilliant student usually has excellent performances in his class but got low marks in his final exams because of his sickness. Consequently, exam results may fail to reflect students' capacity and provide feedback that students can later use to improve their understanding. It is one of the shortcomings if schools apply final examination systems to observe students' progress. Ċ In conclusion, for the aforementioned reasons, assessing the capacity of students by exams instead of continual assessment has both positives and negatives.