Let me be honest with you guysss.
Are exams really a measure of intelligence or just a test of memory huhhhh? For me, it is just memory. 90% cram and 10% fear of failing.
I am still in university, And I was that student in secondary school that always carried first. Not because I was too intelligent, but because I knew how to cram. I could cram the whole Economics textbook from page 1 to page 150....(lol)On exam day, I will pour everything on the paper. Teachers will say "clap for her, she is very intelligent".
My parents were proud. Everybody thought I will be a lawyer.
But outside exam hall, I was empty.
What opened my eyes was my FB account and my school project.
In school, I can write 10 pages about Business Strategy, Marketing, Profit and Loss. I got A in my course last semester......... On paper, I know everything.
But in real life, I was trying to sell my old FB account. I have been growing for 5 year now.Good audience ,high rating. On paper, I calculated I will sell it for good money. Easy profit.
When I entered real market, Facebook groups and WhatsApp vendors, everything scattered.
Buyers were pricing my account that I valued at 40k for 8k. Some will say "I will pay after you give me login". Some will scam. Some will disappear after collecting. My A in Business could not help me negotiate. My A in Marketing could not help me convince a real customer not to scam me.
That day I realized, school never taught me real intelligence. School taught me how to remember what lecturer said in class and write it exactly in exam hall. But real life? Lecturer will not tell you how to detect scammer. No textbook teaches how to handle a buyer who is insulting your sweat.
Why are exams so important then?
I think it is because it is easy to measure. It is very easy for university to grade 200 students with one exam paper in 2 hours. You cannot measure 200 students by putting them in real life to sell something or solve real problem. It will take time, money and stress. So school uses exam as shortcut. It is cheap and fast.
But application is totally different. In exam hall, you are alone, quiet, with 2 hours. In real life, you have noise, scammers, network issues, and pressure from everywhere. No past question prepares you for that.
I am not saying we should cancel exams. Exams are still good to test if you read at all. But I think we should add 50% practical. Let students show what they can do with hand, not just what they can write with pen.
For me, I passed many school exams, but life exams? I am still in university. I am still learning....yeah
What do you think?? Do exams really measure intelligence or just memory?
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