Exam Results Oriented Society

Pros and Cons of Exam Result Oriented Teaching

Exam result oriented teaching is basically a concept whereby the instructor knows the exam contents very well and leads the class through the coursework, all the while keeping his/her eye on the fact that the only goal is to help the student achieve high marks on the exam itself – irrespective of the syllabus contents.

There can be many arguments both for and against this method of teaching. The instructor will need to know which topics should be weighted more or less than others and then lead the students down a very carefully constructed path of precise education – with one goal – high exam results.

While there is no arguing that this teaching method achieves the goal of making sure that the vast majority of students will score well on the exams, one must ask again – is this the proper way to educate our children?

In actuality, the system that incorporates an exam result oriented method of teaching is creating a false environment of ‘easy testing.’ This could cause a student who transfers out of this school and into one where a more traditional philosophy is taught to fail miserably because there is no longer a very clear and concise understanding of exactly what to expect when it comes time for exams. In parallel, when a student graduates from high school and enters college, if they happen to attend a college, or a class, where exam result oriented teaching is not the normal practice, they will find it invariably more difficult to succeed in that testing environment. Yet still, besides immersing in an exams-oriented schooling environment, students can implement strategies to do well in examinations.

Exam result oriented teaching creates a false sense of security and confidence in life itself. A student who has gone through an exam result oriented education does not know how to rebound when they have a misstep on an exam; nor do they know how to study hard for the ‘unknown’ of not being able to say with certainty that they already know all of the answers to all of the questions in life to all of the questions that will be on the exam.

While the pros are heavily weighted in the good for the school; for retention of critical funding and for the overall ease of a cookie-cutter curriculum that becomes stale and repeatable, the cons are much more ominous for our children who are not learning the invaluable skill of how to learn on their own, or how to study hard for something they want or need to attain.

When these youth enter the workforce and the real world they may find that the utopia they are used to, this overall sense of entitlement brings with it a harsh realization that life is not fair. That life is not easy. And unfortunately, that they are ill-prepared. This can cause depression, confusion, and despair. This could cause an otherwise average individual to perform sub-par in their careers, and thus create a lifelong path of underachieving; simply because they were not taught during their formative years how to work hard to get what they want, instead of having everything basically handed to them.

However, it is also possible that the confidence that was instilled by a somewhat “easy” education process will serve to give a young adult the confidence to succeed in tougher situations. When presented with an unknown variable, they will feel confident that they can tackle it with finesse and ease, because - after all - they’ve always been able to do so. Therefore, when they enter the workforce and society as an adult, they are a go-getter, because they know they can succeed. It’s been a proven fact of their entire life up to adulthood that they carry with them throughout every challenge they face in life.

The jury may be out on the real impact to society of exam result oriented teaching, but it is clear that we are teaching our children a lesson – whether it is a positive lesson or a negative lesson may not yet be clear.