There’s a lot of debate in the media and within education about exams and assessment.
What’s the point of it?
How can we make it more effective and less stressful for students?
Is testing and the traditional exam system even relevant for the world today?
Well, I’m not going to get into that debate as such right now, but I do want to share one point of view that I hope will be useful…
The way I see it, whether or not people are happy with it,
exams are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
And whilst there’s development in how we TEACH the subject content and understanding how students – in fact how ANYONE – learns best,
the way we test and structure exams hasn’t changed much.
And there is no realistic discussion right now about scrapping Year 12 exams for those following the academic routes and ATAR.
So, if we accept that,
then we might as well view exams in a productive and positive light.
So I want to offer a way to do that:
First we need to understand that getting great results in exams is about much more than learning and regurgitating information.
Yes, subject knowledge is important,
but what’s equally important is the ability to decipher what a question is really asking and at what cognitive level.
And by cognitive level, I mean what level of detail and depth. For example a question that asks your teen to define, say, food hygiene, is quite different to a question that asks them to explain the importance of food hygiene.
Or a question that asks for a description of a painting or artwork, requires a much lower level response than one which asks your teen to analyse that artwork.
One example where students fall into this trap is with novel or movie analyses.
They often end up simply describing the storyline or the characters, rather than analysing the techniques that have gone into these and how they relate to a certain theme or purpose.
So how does this make exams useful?
Well, it could be argued that knowing the symbolism an author has used to portray a theme in a novel isn’t going to be that relevant in later life,
it’s not going to serve students particularly well in writing a job application or carrying out there job (whatever tasks that could involve)
being able to serve clients,
or write a funding grant,
or following a set of instructions.
The actual subject content and knowledge and understanding required may not be that useful.
It can be interesting, and it can show an ability to think and operate at a certain level,
but useful in a practical sense – not really.
But the skill of being able to work out what is wanted and needed is going to be super useful.
Knowing how to figure out what people want and then how to give it to them in the most effective and efficient way is extremely useful and can serve your teen in so many ways.
Whether they work for a boss and need to fulfil their demands,
whether they are serving clients and customers,
whether they run their own business or projects and need to create products and services,
or if they’re applying for funding and grants for a charity or not-for-profit organisation.
So, I hope this waves a little sprinkle of positivity over exams.
If we’re accepting that they’re a part of most students’ lives, then we might as well consider them as positively as possible and focus on the ways they can serve and help students today.
This way, the exam technique skills they learn and hone to tackle them,
like identifying command words,
knowing exactly how to respond to them
and properly understanding mark schemes and rubrics, well, these will not only serve them amazingly well for their exams
but will also be in place for whatever lies ahead beyond those exams too.
Leave me a comment below – I’d love to know what plans or dreams has your teen got for their future
and how could the skills of getting to grips with what’s wanted and knowing how to provide it – help them succeed in that as well as their exams?
