Task 2: Exams - the best method of assessing educational achievement, does they?

Many people believe that formal "pen and paper" examinations are not the best method of assessing educational achievement.
Discuss this view and give your own opinion.

exams role in the education system

Examinations have been the most popular method of evaluating people's knowledge for decades. The belief is that this procedure is the key to measure learning in the education system, while others claim that it should be reconsidered. In my opinion, I totally agree with the latter view.

Obviously, exams measure memory, not learning. First, the main aim of an exam is to assess how much information learners can put down onto the paper in the given time. Thus, students with good memories will perform better than those with bad memories. Second, different types of exam questions do not have any real-world application which is the end goal of learning. Although exam questions are now somehow more realistic, whether examiners are willing to accept any types of students' opinions or not is still uncertain. Instead, they are among reasons why students become more anxious, also, obsessed to be the best in their class. As a result, exams partly limit learners' creativity and ability to break the mold, let alone evaluate one's achievements.

However, it is undeniable that our system of public examinations indeed bring out benefits. In fact, hundreds of good, demanding examinations such as SAT and IELTS open doors to higher study and to fulfilling lives. Despite the above-mentioned advantage, deeper learning including debating, teamwork and research skills in long-term performances rather than exam results in isolation, should be the goal.

In conclusion, besides being broadly designed to assess one's ability properly, exams should also be in combination with other methods to be truly an important role in the education system.

@vanslogy your opening statement is almost correct in presentation. You did a good job of rephrasing the topic for discussion, but you failed to properly represent the thesis statement in your presentation. The thesis restatement should have been:

This essay will discuss the current point of view regarding the formal "pen and paper" exams so that I can offer my personal opinion on the matter as well.

An accurate paraphrase always closes with a restatement of the discussion instruction line because that serves to complete the outline of the original paraphrase and helps to create the discussion chronology in the paper you will be writing. By the way, since this is not an "extent" essay so you did not have to state that you "totally agree" with the statement. You have to remind yourself that in the IELTS test, you are not allowed to offer discussion data, of which your statement of opinion is, in the opening paraphrase. There is simply no room to fully discuss your opinion there so it should be reserved for the actual body of paragraphs instead. That is the rule and it should be followed. A direct response to the instruction is only acceptable in the TOEFL opening paraphrase.

You were supposed to discuss the public opinion first and then your personal opinion second. There is no representation of your personal opinion in the essay. You cannot assume that all of the paragraphs you presented belong to your personal opinion because it lacks the use of the personal pronouns that serve to give ownership of the statement to you, as in , your opinion. So what you have here is just the public discussion of facts regarding the given topic. An oversight on your part resulted in the lack of a personal statement being delivered as part of the required elements of the essay.

Additionally, you are over the maximum sentence requirement of 5 sentences in your second paragraph while you are just about meeting requirement in your third paragraph. It would be best if for your score if you deliver 5 sentences exactly in every paragraph. That include the opening statement and the concluding paragraph.

By the way, you are not supposed to include a new discussion of information in the concluding statement. That is what you did in this concluding statement. That is unacceptable and you will be scored down for not properly summarizing the content of the essay discussion in the concluding statement. That is the required representation for that paragraph.