VOX POP: Is examination a true test of knowledge?

Olurotimi Lois and Johnson Precious 



In every academic setting, examinations can't be jettisoned. It's a prerequisite and hurdle that must be encountered before being considered qualified for the next step. Our correspondents have gone around the four walls of Obafemi Awolowo University to have the perception of students on whether an examination is considered to be a true test of knowledge.




NAME: Tola Coker

DEPARTMENT: Botany 

PART: 1

No, It’s not. 

Most times we end up getting questions about what we were probably not taught, basically testing the knowledge of what I was never taught about is not testing my knowledge because I’m obviously not a magician to think beyond or maybe some marking schemes that will not favour students that read for it. 

Examination makes it looks like one is not doing enough, it encourages depression (A comparison between how a student reads and what he or she is getting does not always match)

Most examination does not crown a student's effort but rather makes them tired of school. 



NAME: Kuteyi Jesupemi

DEPARTMENT: Agricultural & Environmental Engineering 

PART: 3

It's a two way thing actually because first, if you say knowledge is a true test of knowledge, it means that; Based on a particular concept/subject/course or whatever, the exam tests how much you remember or know about that particular course when lessons were given and that is true about the statement. 

In life generally you can't say an 'exam' will test true knowledge about life because life is not something you learn, it's what you experience and go through. 

Now if you have gained experience in life, you'll be referred to as knowledgeable because there is no how you would forget what you have experienced or not know what to do about something.  

In the first point above, exam only tests what your memory and how much you can remember and that's why someone can be so good at remembering definitions and formulas to pass exams excellently but in the end won't succeed because such a person was really just tested theoretically and not practically which calls for experience to fare well in life.


NAME: Akintade Ayomide

DEPARTMENT: English 

PART: 4

Knowledge, strictly, is the understanding & information possessed by an individual about a subject, concept or idea. So far, examination has been used to test the depth of people's knowledge. & it has, falsely, I would say, presented itself as a true, if not the truest, test of knowledge. But the exam situation can be influenced by a series of psychological factors like exam tensions, short memory loss (which turns examination into a game of remembrance), stress and trauma, etc., which would in turn influence the result of the examination. 

No test would be considered true if it thrives on psychological imbalances. And truth be told, almost all exams have the reputation of causing psychological and mental unease in the examined. this is coupled with the fact that human beings generally only reproduce a fragment of their knowledge base when the need calls for them to put up a performance or even defend it. When humans speak, they speak below their natural ability, same as when they write, debate, engage in crafts and all. The same is true for exams. Whatever people write in exams is only a fragment of what is retained in the knowledge bank. so examination can only be used as an inductive guide into how enormous or narrow someone's knowledge base is, it cannot really measure its true depth. In other words, examination is not a true test of knowledge.


NAME: Ojokolo Peter Oluwadamilare

DEPARTMENT: English 

PART: 1 

Examination is derived from a Latin word that stands for 'to weigh'. As to whether examination is a true test of knowledge, well as far as I am concerned, it depends on perception. I see School, as a training ground for humans. It teaches us many lessons about life. It prepares us for real life struggles.

Take for instance, a boy who has invested lots of time to reading and then when tested, he scores below his expectations.

This should not be taken negatively, instead he should see it as a lesson about life, since we can't get all we want always in life.

We fail in examination just as we fail in life. If we work hard and smart in our studies at the end of the day, it pays off just like life rewards the smart and hardworking.

To cut the story short, I see examination purely as a scale that is used to measure our knowledge, if we really have acquired any.


NAME: Ephraim Grace

DEPARTMENT: Pharmacy 

PART: 5

Yes, because without a test

no one will know someone's strength and weakness. 

Someone might have knowledge about something

but how will the knowledge be proven without an exam/test? 




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Faculty of Administration releases cut-off marks for departments

OAU RELEASES FINAL LIST FOR 2017/2018 ADMISSIONS.

OAU ADMISSIONS MERIT LIST UPLOADED ON JAMB WEBSITE.