University Assessment: Exams, Continuous Assessment, and Their Effects

This essay delves into the debate between traditional exams and continuous assessment methods in higher education. The author argues in favor of continuous assessment, analyzing its impact on students, educators, and parents. The essay highlights how exams can cause stress and limit learning to memorization, while continuous assessment encourages deeper understanding and application of knowledge. It also discusses how continuous assessment can provide more comprehensive feedback for both students and teachers, and how it can influence parents' perspectives on academic progress. The essay concludes that continuous assessment offers a more enriching educational experience for all stakeholders, advocating for its adoption over traditional exam-based systems. This essay is available on Desklib, a platform providing students with AI-powered study tools and academic resources.

Running head: EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Exam versus Continuous Assessment Debate.................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

2EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Introduction
Exams and Continuous Assessments are the methods of assessing the performance of the
students and also adjudging their progress. The research question of this particular essay shall be
to answer how will the debate of exams versus continuous assessments as methods of assessment
can affect educators, students and parents. The position chosen for this particular essay shall be
in support of continuous assessment over the system of exams, in order to adjudge its effect on
educators, students and parents.
Exam versus Continuous Assessment Debate
Exams tend to stress the students and it is more often than not a test of the memory of the
student. Examination is the traditional mode of assessment which takes place at the middle of
scholastic session and also to mark the end of the scholastic session. The basis of the
examination generally does not go beyond the syllabus or the course material that is supposed to
be taught during a particular scholastic session (Aithal & Kumar, 2016). The students are thus
goaded into a situation whereby they do not learn anything more and their knowledge about the
subject matter that they are studying is also thus gets limited. The aim being memorization of the
course material and then producing it in the examinations is something which motivates the
students to study the course material. This is an extremely narrow conception of receiving
education and it does not benefit all the students equally (Pereira, Flores & Niklasson, 2016).
There are some students who study just for the exams and not throughout the year which causes
the disparity in the scores and also in the intellectual development of the students. The education
system should be designed in a way which shall prove to be beneficial to all the students and

3EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
encourage their betterment, which exams cannot meet efficiently. While on other hand
continuous assessment which does not involve just the generic exams but also assignments
which calls for application of the knowledge of the course material and also going beyond the
syllabus to gain knowledge and apply it to the sharpening of the understanding of the course
material taught as a part of the syllabus (Osadebe & Abel, 2018). Thus the continuous
assessment encourages the students to be enthusiastic about gaining knowledge and can be
beneficial for all types of students. Thus the continuous assessment generates a positive and
educative impact upon the students which is much more profound than exam system.
The exam system is also a cause of stress upon the teacher and during the process of
correcting a huge lot of answer scripts there is every possibility that the teacher might overlook
the answer scripts and mark the students on an average which can hamper the scores of the
students. Moreover there is not much intellectual exchange between the teacher and the student
during the process of examination while continuous assessment has an educative upon the
teachers as much as on the students (Chen et al., 2019). The assignments of the students shall
enable the teachers to gain a different perspective and that can also enable the teacher to learn
and broaden his or her horizon of thought process. Through the process of continuous assessment
the teachers and the students come in close contact with each other and that enables the teacher
to be a better guide to the student (Moreira, 2018). Thus continuous assessment has an educative
impact upon the teachers as much as on the students, which enables the teachers to play their role
with more efficiency.
The exam system is a cause of insecurity among the parents which can drive them to
quantify the progress of their wards strictly in terms of marks. Parents tend to miss out on the
fact the exam scores are not always a yardstick to ideally measure the progress of or the

4EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
intellectual standard of their ward. While on the other hand continuous assessment shall
reconcile the parents to the real issues that are hampering the academic progress and
performance of the wards and also make the parents aware of the area of interest of their wards
(Amensisa, 2018). Thus continuous assessment impacts the parents by enabling them to broaden
their mindset about academic performance and take intellectual progress of their wards much
more than the test scores.
Conclusion
Thus the debate of exams versus continuous assessment hints at the latter in having a
more profound impact in enriching the experience of education for students, teachers and parents
alike. Hence on the basis of the discussion in the previous session it becomes apparent that
continuous assessment is much more preferred than exam system.

5EXAMS VERSUS CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
References
Aithal, P. S., & Kumar, P. M. (2016). Analysis of Choice Based Credit System in Higher
Education. International Journal of Engineering Research and Modern Education
(IJERME) Volume I, Issue I, 278-284.
Amensisa, G. (2018). The Practice and Challenges of Implementation of Continuous
Assessment: The Case of Boneya Boshe Woreda Secondry Schools (Doctoral dissertation,
Addis Ababa University).
Chen, S. H., Lai, H. R., Chen, S. R., Lin, P. C., Chou, K. R., & Lee, P. H. (2019). Validity and
reliability of a Chinese-language instrument for continuous assessment of exercise stages
of change in adults. The Journal of Nursing Research, 27(4), e37.
Moreira, M. A. (2018). Who benefits from Western forms of language teacher education?. In
AERA 2018-American Educational Research Association.
Osadebe, P. U., & Abel, U. O. (2018). Assessment Of Teachers’ Implementation Of Continuous
Assessment In Senior Secondary Schools In Delta Central Senatorial District. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 5(7).
Pereira, D., Flores, M. A., & Niklasson, L. (2016). Assessment revisited: a review of research in
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 41(7), 1008-1032.