Make-Up Mini Mock Questions 3 - 5 (November 2024 22)

1 Most educational systems in the world use national exams in order to assess students at the end of secondary education. Educational experts have for many years been arguing that these exams should be abolished, and their recommendation should now be put into effect. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the replacement of exams with assessment by teachers did not cause civilisation to collapse, as some people seemed to expect. Young people still gained the qualifications they needed in order to progress to university or to their chosen careers – in fact, many of them achieved greater success than they would have done on the traditional system.

2 Exams have an immense impact on people’s lives, because those who gain high grades in exams at school and college will find success and happiness as adults. Young people approaching adult life need to be encouraged; so assessment should aim to give positive evaluation and encouragement to everyone, not just the talented few.

3 School exams are unavoidably inefficient as a means of selecting the people with greatest potential for success, since they have no relationship to the skills required in adult life. After leaving school, you will never again need to sit in silence, without access to people, books or the internet, and attempt to answer questions which are irrelevant to your career.

4 The expectation that all school-leavers should take exams has been a bad mistake, because it was introduced only recently. In previous generations, only the most academic students were expected to take exams, while everyone else received an education designed to develop the skills they would need as adults. That policy worked well and it should never have been changed.

5 The emphasis put on preparing for exams has pushed out of the curriculum other aspects of a well-rounded life which students should be experiencing. The absence from young people’s lives of elements such as sport, the arts and relationships will make them much less fulfilling than they should be.