On Examinations (addressed to students)

As a teacher, the most annoying things for me are the exams. I believe one should not judge the other person. Every student or scientist is good in something. There could be gradations in aptitudes in various skills like analytic, memory, problem solving, experimental, design etc.  A written exam for several hours is simply not good enough to test various skill.  In fact, it is meaningless to test all the skills,  because typically a person has liking for one or several of these skills.

The problem is that the outside world wants to know who are the better students of the class. the award-giving institutions want to know the best students.  Given all these irritating constrains, we award grades and conduct exams.  One may say that the grades are the thing, because we can get the coveted job/scholarship/awards etc. by getting very good grades.  It turns out that if you try to focus too much on grades, you don't tend to learn.  There is a story in this lines..

A student approaches a martial-art master and asks how long does it take to become proficient in martial-art. The master replies, "Five years!" The impatient student asks,  "if I work twice as hard, how long will it take?." The master replies "Ten years!"  The puzzled student asks why.  The master says that if you think of finishing fast, you will never learn.  I think focussing on grades removes the pleasure of learning.

One more obvious point, the way ranks in the entrance exams help you to get into a college, the grades help you to get to the next step. After 10 years neither you nor your colleagues will ever think about grades in your college courses.  I have personally seen the students average grade point of 9.5 and 7.5 doing equally well in their work.  Grades are most often a pretty poor measure of ones capabilities.

The above thoughts appear philosophical.  In the real world, all of us have to be practical, but philosophy must be kept in mind. Otherwise all these courses and projects are meaningless.  In practice, we have to conduct exams once in a while, and you have to write exams once in a while. But the focus must be on learning through inquiries.  Being practical, one needs to prepare for the exams. However, if you have learnt the subject, there is not much pressure.  You will definitely get a good grade.  The good could be A or B.  Is B OK? I personally think if someone enjoys the course, but for some reason he/she lands up with B, one should not mind B at all.

Learning, not examinations, is primary!  Unfortunately, it is reversed in the present system, from school, to entrance examination, to college, and to job hunt,....  But a choice always lies with an individual.  You  pick yours!