Essay on Examination Fever ROHIT AGARWAL It is said when the examinations are approaching, the 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 worry of students. They are the only unpleasant experience in an otherwise happy and carefree life. The bugbear of an examination interrupts the smooth course of a student's life. Games, musical concerts, debates and other extra-mural activities are all stopped busy in preparations for examinations. Students are not to be found at the cinema-houses, restaurants and other places of entertainment during the examination days. Examinations are held to test students' 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 utilising or wasting their time. If there were no examinations, 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 examinations that makes students work. They know that if they keep on neglecting their books, they will be exposed in examinations. 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 foil they will experience a feeling of humiliation. All these things combine to urge a student to hard work. Examinations are, therefore, a spur to effort, an incentive to work. But examinations are not a reliable test of the ability of students. A student may memorize certain portions of the text and if a question is set from the portions he has prepared, he will no doubt secure good marks, while another student, brighter and more intelligent than the first, may not show good results because he did not especially prepare the questions which were set in the examination. 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 educationists now agree that a simple crucial examination is certainly no test 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 into 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 do not usually show bad results and that negligent students do not generally pass. It cannot be denied, however, that examinations do exert as unusual strain upon the minds of the students who lose all their zest for life at the approach of an examination. Tutors are

engaged, notes and guess-papers are purchased, special lectures are attended, coaching classes are thronged, in short, all possible measures are taken to get through the examination. The reason for all this is that throughout the term the students pay little heed 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 institutions 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 drawbacks.

Essay on examination 8 Replies Hints. 1. All condemn examinations, but cannot do away with them. 2. Examinations are a terror to students and exert a great strain on their mind. 3. Examinations simply encourage cramming and are not the surest test of ones ability. 4. Examinations, however, arc an incentive to hard work. 5, Examinations are a necessary evil; they bring out the best men and also the best in men. Students look upon examinations with contempt; they make all possible efforts to avoid them. Educationists are against them, sad are thinking of abolishing them. Critics find fault with then. In spite of condemnation from all the quarters, examinations persist. They teem indispensable in every walk of life. They are the milestones on the road to education and life. Students may come, students may go, but examinations go on for ever. Examination is the stern child of education; it is a light to guide and a rod to check the erring. Students cannot get rid of them, and teachers cannot do without them Examinations are a horror to students who turn pale and tremble at their approach. They lose appetites; they do not show toy Interest in games and other recreations. They lose all seats for fife. They are a tight worth seeingunshaven beards, disbavellcd hair, and haggard facet. They know that their future depends upon the result of the examinations, and if they do not fare well, they will be doomed. Naturally examinations cause a great atrtia on their minds. They offer prayers; they ban midnight oil; they art reduced to mere skeletons. This all is due to the defective system of education. If periodical tests are held and are given as much importance as the final examinations, students will work regularly and will be saved from excessive physical and mental strain. Examinations are not necessarily the surest test of the ability i of students.1! They are judged from what they perform in three hours. Sometimes the most brilliant student is not able to do justice in such a short duration. On the contrary, a student who has not touched the books the whole year gets good marks, because all the questions he prepared just before the examination were asked. Moreover, history tells us that most of the great men cut a sorry figure in the examinations. Shakespeare never passed any examination, yet his works have won worldwide recognition. The worlds greatest scientist, Einstein, father of the atomic age, failed in Mathematics, Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru were no recordbreakers at the university, though heir personalities shook the whole world. Examinations do determine the value of majority of the students, but the geniuses have often proved misfit at the examinations They do not wish to confine their minds within the four

walls of the examinations. No system has yet been? devised which will apply to all sort! of students. It is held that examinations these days encourage cramming. The students deliberately?; do not take to studies seriously, as they fcnow that if they prepare a few important questions near the examinations, they will surely get through. They depend upon helpbooks, guides and booklets, as they think them to be the surest means to success. They do not bother to read textbooks or whatever teachers tell them io the class. They have Cdevised shortcuts to passthe examinations. They take the help of guesspapers, study urjng the last Jmonth, and get good marks. The examinations are only a feat of memory. Leacock says that parrots woul$, do better in the examinations. Chance also plays an important role in the examinations these days. A student who has been working for two years may fail, whereas an idler who has done a few questions which have been asked in the examination may pass with good marks. The papersetters are expected to ask such questions in the examinations as may not be answered by the students who totally depend upon cramming and do not make use of their intelligence. The entire style of the question papers should be radically changed in order to discourage the students from working by fits and starts. With all the faults, examinations are an incentive to hard work. They are indeed a necessity because it is only the fear of the examinations that makes students work hard. They areaware of the humiliation they will face if they do not come out successful. They will not neglect their studies throughout, as they do not like to be exposed. But for the examinations, they would not touch their books at all. They would waste all their time in idle mischiefs. It is better to carry a few facts in memory than to be absolutely blank. Examinations are a necessary evil. It is not possible to do Without them, They will remain injone form or the other The government of India are thinking of making the rule that a University degree should not be necessary for government service. Then they wilt hold recruitment tests. We may condemn examinations, yet examinations invade all walks of life. This is the only method to far discovered to discriminate between the fit and the unfit. If the examinations are abolished, everyone will claim to be the ablest of all. Rivalry and com potions bring out the beat men and also the beat in men. After all, this life is a long examination, and we are VALUED by God by our performance in this examination.