I never understood tests/exams

I don’t mind them because I’ve always done well on them but I never understood why they existed, moreover why there are multiple ones per class you take. Here’s my take on it.

Why would you develop something that did the following two things
- Create an environment where cramming is actually a feasible thing (exams every week) for a student with 4+ classes, these kinds of classes are a nightmare.
- Reinforce that the talented, gifted, and clearly intelligent students are in-fact, intelligent. Gee Didn’t see that coming did we?
- Reinforce that the less talented, struggling students aren’t understanding the topic and aren’t doing well in the class.

So in effect, this praises and rewards students who do well in class and improves their grades, that sounds about right. But it hinders the students who didn’t do as well, I disagree with that notion and I hope that others do also. Why would you want to hurt the students who aren’t doing well in the class, and their chances of passing the class?

Before this gets brought up, cheaters and students who do poorly are not the same thing and I recognize that. My whole argument revolves around Tests and Examinations being the cause of laziness and professors who do not do their part properly. Help me portray my point to all of you who are taking the time to read this, and let me thank you if you took the time to. It’s something I always attempt to explain in person to friends but it never comes out right which makes most people who are closed minded simply write off my point. So thanks, truly.

If a professor actually made a curriculum that effectively made sense and helped single out the categories of students, I believe exams and tests could be eliminated from the system as a whole.

Give more homework, I know some of you may groan and say oh well that’s just a waste of time. I don’t think of homework as that anymore, especially since I’m in my 3rd year of college right now. Some of my professors don’t teach, legitimately don’t teach or cannot teach properly. So I take any and all homework as a Godsend, because it is practice and solidifies my knowledge in the place of what a professor should be doing. Helps me take my own education into my own hands.

By giving more homework, you would be providing the students the following things.
- Practice
- Work
- A method to be graded from
- A PROPER evaluation of skill

In order for this to work, the grading regiments would have to be adjusted obviously so attendance and homework would need to be counted as the largest parts of a grade. Again most might groan and already not like the idea, but when you’re at my point and you’re paying for school yourself, you want to take the most you can from a class, I very rarely skip anymore nearing the end of my college education.

And what do I mean by a proper evaluation of skill? Well for one, the students who naturally do well will be rewarded as usual, the cheaters can be singled out and be reprimanded you know, given that the professor actually gives a damn and LOOKS for these cheaters. These days you can openly cheat on anything and the professors probably don’t feel like dealing with defiance so they stay seated instead of stopping the habit.

And lastly the homework would provide, for the student who struggles, the practice he or she so needs while providing enough opportunities to bring themselves up from not knowing. Teachers can spot the students who are not doing so well and provide closer attention for them to improve on areas that they don’t seem to understand.

Let’s say I assign a Homework Assignment to a classroom, it covers certain aspects of algebra, trig, and calculus. When I look over the results, let’s say James didn’t do well in most of trig, and didn’t do very well in Calculus. I can see in his answers what he did wrong, what he’s lost on and pinpoint the weakness, work on it with him, and provide him the security he needs mentally to not think he’s failing the course.

I hope this makes sense, and that it helps homework take on a better light. I’ve been wanting to put this into words but it’s a little difficult to make some people understand. Thank you for reading.

The test

in the last year of school
we took a cognitive test
to guide us toward a career.

several pages of
would you / do you / if she, would you
and
guide her hand to your / act on your impulse
write down the first thing that comes to mind.

yes, I refrained from remarking
on the girl sat in front of me.
I got on
I drew my pen
through the pages before me.

weeks later
it came back
the ultimate answer
the goal (I didn’t know)
I was looking for
to my musical bones
to my artist’s mind
to my sunken heart:

‘interior decorator’.

?

there must be some
mistake, I thought.

didn’t they know
my interior was fit to burst
with colour already?

a, b or c; the results
were as varied as multiple choice.
on the same page
as looking for god
with a gauze and a Bunsen burner.

but to go around painting
others’ interiors…
I’d only make a mess
a bleeding colourful noise
inside their world.

because base coats
bore me stiff.
don’t get me wrong
I love a bit of minimalism
but -
I cannot control myself
I am compelled
to spoil it–

first whisper
in the woods

black boot
the first foot
in virgin snow

the secret finger
swiping off icing.

I cannot not.
I cannot stand for hours
painting the same room white.
even now I cannot keep this poem
straight on the path I started out on.
once the brush gets going
I disappear. and that’s
the way I like it.

no wonder I put down the brush
after school
and went to the job centre
where they laughed
at my idea
of making art
for a living.