Written Examinations
January 18th, 2006
Being a dyslexic disabled student I always struggle with exams. Hehe. No! Not in that respect; I meant in the sense that they’re so utterly futile. Practicality aside, if written examinations were to be replaced by a different means of assessment, they’d be less qualified fools without a clue of what they’re qualified in, and more qualified people who do know what they’re qualified in. Let’s embellish this statement with a little escoteric Neilistic example (as mentioned to Natti earlier):
Picture a car mechanic who can fully explain, identify and solve problems within a given car aurally; yet whose writting abilities are not confident or sophisticated enough to be stand to the same level.
Now imagine that mechanic competing in a written examination against somebody whose accademic skills were stronger yet experience was weaker.
Obviously, this petty example illustrates a non-reality situation. However, what it does suggest is that both candidates have their strengths in communicating and being able to transcend their knowledge onto the assessor. The mode of written examination is limited in extracting a true and accurate reading of what a said candidate is capable of. It therefore would be prudent to consider and factor in such attributes of people.
I’m not praying on the “equal rights” crap to save the day and allow wheel-chair bound peons to participate in the 100M sprint, as that is not what I am about. Although, what I am about is: seeing a person for what they are worth and what they can do and what they can’t. From my limited experience in life, I can see that there are a lot of over qualified people who study because they’re capable of it, without necessarily being intelligent; and then, a whole lot of skilled people who are bad at studying and live a repressed life despite being rather intelligent.
I always figured as a child that qualification and education were both the same thing and the resultant effect would be an intelligent outcome. Consequently intelligence, would be a skill in the thinking arena, generally specific to a particular field. I now believe (upon further insite) that education is a very distant myth and qualification is used to compensate for people’s lack of skill in the field they’re qualified in.