I started a new experience recently that have taught me more than I expected about exams and tests. I mean, I've been writing tests and exams all my school life but I didn't think deep to why exactly I am writing them aside that all I had just wanted back then was to get good grades to show my dad and be promoted to the next class.
Aside school settings, other aspects of life have given me test and exams at random more than the ones I had expected and that is how life is. There are good reasons tests and exams were introduced into life's system, starting with school settings. I'll say it's for both reasons as stated in the prompt but with many other importance.
I can totally understand why people may think exams are just a test of memory and not a measure of intelligence. Today, we have more people cramming what they've been taught just to pass an exam and not even understanding what it is, than thinking of to apply it to the real world. A lot of us just read to pass, nothing else.
That is not supposed to be, and I think a part of the blame goes to the foundation of these tests and exams. I think it should come in regularly until the final exams to pass a class or a level, not a one time thing for every class where people just force themselves to read and pass for the sake of passing, not bothering to understand it.
Why I'll agree tests and exams are just a test of memory is how we go about it in the school system, I can still remember how I bothered to know what I was being taught. I spent a much longer time to understand some things and before I knew it, it's exam week and they expected every one of us to write and pass the exams they've spent over two months to teach.
If we want the tests and exams to be a measure of intelligence, it must go beyond just setting questions to jog memories for what had been taught. It will be more about regular exercises for students to understand what is being taught and that should include real practices where these learners actually do what they are being taught.
As the prompt says, the application of knowledge is always different from just being taught and knowing what is taught. Tests and exams are great but the application is more important seeing how the world works outside the learning spaces. While jobs may be found with good certificates, knowing the application keeps them.
In my opinion, the present state of tests and exams and what they are doing to learners in our generation is, memories are only being tested to pass levels or classes. Only few actually bother to study on their own, know what is being tested of them and apply it in the real world which isn't supposed to be but it is also quite encouraging.