EXAMINATION FEVER
It is said when examinations are approaching, students suffer from examination fever. And rightly examinations are regarded as a curse by students. The approach of examinations means the beginning of fear in the mind of a student. As a matter of fact, examinations are the only hurdles in an otherwise happy and carefree life of a student. The bugbear of an examination interrupts the smooth course of a student’s life, games, musical concerts, debates and activities and all stopped when examinations are nearing. Students are not to be found at the cinema houses, restaurants and other places of entertainment during those days.
Examination are held to test student’s ability, to check up the work they have done during a term, to judge what progress they have made and to determine whether they have been utilizing or wasting their time. If there were no examination, the merits of the various students could not be judged, nor would the majority of students take any interest as it is only the fear of examination that makes students work. They know that if they keep on neglecting their books, they will expose in examination. They are aware that their marks will be communicated to the guardians who will take them to task if the results are not satisfactory. They know also that if they fail they will experience a feeling of humiliation. All things combine to urge a student to hard work. Examinations are therefore on incentive to work hard.
But examinations are not a reliable test of the ability of students. A student may memorize certain portion of the text and if a question is set from the portion he had prepared, he will no doubt secure good marks, while another student, brighter and more intelligent than the first one, may or show good results because he did not especially preferred the questions which are set in the examinations. Similarly it may be said that the standard of marking all the papers is not the same, because different examiners mark different papers in different moods. Most educationalists now agree that a simple crucial examination is certainly no use of ability. They insist upon a series of practical tests of knowledge and intelligence over a period of two or three years. The results of all these tests, they say should be taken in to account when judging a student’s ability. The argument has no doubt a good deal of truth in it. But on the whole it may be said that good students don’t usually show bad results and that negligent students do not generally pass.
The examinations do exert a usual strain up on the minds of the students who lose all their zest for life at the approach of an exam. Tutors are engaged, notes are purchased, special classes are attended and coaching class thronged. In short all possible measures are taken to get through the exam. The reason for all this is that throughout the term students pay little head to their studies and so when a test is near they have to concentrate all their energies on studies.
The scheme of internal assessment introduced some years ago by some institution is intended as a step in the direction to keep a watch on the students labour and regularity in their studies. However even this has its own demerits.