Some people believe that exams are an inappropriate way of measuring students’ performance and should be replaced by continuous assessment. Do you agree or disagree with this view?

As the concept of education adjusts to the changing needs of the modern
society, so does the evaluation system. Mainly, the discussion on the ways of
measuring students’ performance includes the opposition of traditional exams
and continuous assessment. This essay will reveal advantages and disadvantages
of both means.

To begin with, traditional exams have proved themselves to be an efficient
and fair assessment method due to their objectivity, versatility, and
flexibility. Indeed, examination system has moved far beyond regular tests:
nowadays it’s a complex technique that evaluates not only knowledge but also
the abstract thinking and creativity. Therefore exams’ importance cannot be
either underestimated or neglected. For instance, exam results are required by
schools, universities and employers all over the world in order to prove the
level of applicants’ proficiency. However, the notion of having a single
attempt for students’ performance to be measured is putting participants under
the high pressure. As a result, exams also assess the ability to cope with the
stress which sometimes distorts the veritable evaluation.

Alternative way to measure students’ performance is continuous assessment.
This method’s superiority over the traditional exams is that it excludes the
impact of external factors such as mental and physical state, adverse
circumstances and etc. Moreover, this kind of assessment forces students to
work hard throughout the whole semester, diminishing the probability of
cheating. This idea is confirmed by the examples of developed countries that
comprise continuous assessment into the grading system. Nevertheless, this
kind of assessment is more appropriate for evaluating the effort but not the
level of knowledge due to its subjectiveness.

All in all, as both examination and continuous assessment have significant
drawbacks, none of them can be used as an universal evaluation method. The
adequate strategy therefore is to combine those means in order to make
assessment efficient.

Votes
Average: 8.4 (1 vote)
Essays by the user:

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 11, column 39, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
... the abstract thinking and creativity. Therefore exams' importance cannot be eithe...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 22, column 15, Rule ID: AND_ETC[1]
Message: Use simply 'etc.'.
Suggestion: etc.
... physical state, adverse circumstances and etc. Moreover, this kind of assessment force...
^^^^^^^^
Line 30, column 40, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
... drawbacks, none of them can be used as an universal evaluation method. The adequ...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, however, if, moreover, nevertheless, so, therefore, for instance, kind of, such as, as a result, to begin with

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 13.1623246493 84% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 7.85571142285 38% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 10.4138276553 115% => OK
Relative clauses : 4.0 7.30460921844 55% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 15.0 24.0651302605 62% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 41.998997996 95% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 8.3376753507 240% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1823.0 1615.20841683 113% => OK
No of words: 302.0 315.596192385 96% => OK
Chars per words: 6.03642384106 5.12529762239 118% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.1687104957 4.20363070211 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.40159069588 2.80592935109 121% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 176.041082164 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.619205298013 0.561755894193 110% => OK
syllable_count: 558.0 506.74238477 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.60771543086 112% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 5.43587174349 92% => OK
Article: 5.0 2.52805611222 198% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.10420841683 143% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 0.809619238477 371% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 2.0 4.76152304609 42% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 16.0721442886 100% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 20.2975951904 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 33.9429093295 49.4020404114 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.9375 106.682146367 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.875 20.7667163134 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.5625 7.06120827912 107% => OK
Paragraphs: 28.0 4.38176352705 639% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.01903807615 60% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.67935871743 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 3.9879759519 150% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 3.4128256513 176% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.273946703517 0.244688304435 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0972845841224 0.084324248473 115% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.101384505741 0.0667982634062 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.067580073795 0.151304729494 45% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0878546382856 0.056905535591 154% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.5 13.0946893788 126% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 36.28 50.2224549098 72% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.44779559118 150% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 11.3001002004 112% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 17.75 12.4159519038 143% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 10.23 8.58950901804 119% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 78.4519038076 139% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 9.78957915832 112% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.1190380762 91% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 10.7795591182 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Maximum five paragraphs wanted.

Rates: 84.2696629213 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 7.5 Out of 9
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.