Only formal examinations, written or practical, can give a clear picture of students’ true knowledge and ability at university level. Continuous assessment like course work and projects are poor measures of student ability.

How far do you agree with this latter statement?


Many universities, nowadays, have utilized some new measures to evaluate the quality of their students by relying on the proportion of marks given to each part of studying courses such as essays and projects. Some arguments, however, have been aroused that such methods cannot reflect the true abilities of students as properly as formal examinations.

By denying a role of course work, some people have assumed that only written tests took at the end of each terms can bring a true insight into learners’ knowledge. As evidence of this, they point to vast amounts of essays and projects provided illegally through Internet. Consequently, teachers cannot discover whether or not their students may use the stolen works from websites.

Others, myself included, are of opinion that the new measures to assess learners are more accurate and effective than the formal one. One reason for this judgement is that abilities of people are often performed during studying time. Therefore, if there is only assessment at the end of university term, some students who suffer pressure from exams may have unfair results. Another reason is that, seeking information and documentaries for essays and projects could encourage youngsters to work and think independently. Furthermore, having access to more knowledge may inspire the passion of studying for learners.

For the above mentioned reasons, it is clear that students will take the considerable advantages if the new methods are implemented widely. Nevertheless, I feel we need to ensure that the negative sides should be prevented by using high technology to expose cheat or taking some additional measures such as oral or viva to examine more details about the content presented in students’ works.

(280 words)