I’m sure the students among you are certainly asking: “Who thought of exams anyway?” while lamenting about your workload and stressing about the imminent doom that is your exam. As integrated as they may seem, the exams we take (or have already taken luckily for you) and the grades we are branded are not natives to education in the west. So can we perhaps drive this invasive species back out?
Probably not.
Exams as we know it was first seen in ancient China around the 7th century C.E. This standardised exam, known as the ‘imperial examination’, was intended to select candidates for government positions.
Now you, a student, may be asking – ‘But why do I, an emotionally unstable adolescent who aspires only to be employed and not live with my parents for eternity, have to take an exam: a tool created to select the most able to lofty positions in government?’
Well, around the 17th and 18th century, this standardised testing approach to exams managed to migrate to Europe. Possibly brought over by a priest and rooted itself in the Prussia and then the rest of Europe and these standardised tests probably aren’t going away soon.
They are certainly not perfect but they are convenient, unlike more individual methods of assessment, these standardised external exams are fast, efficient, and less subjective (whether that is an advantage or disadvantage is another question). Perhaps it is because we do not have a more effective solution or perhaps we are just unwilling to change but either way, at least for the foreseeable future, exams are here to stay.
