Are exams necessary? – B1 English Listening Test

it's been five years since I sat my University finals and I still have nightmares about turning over a test paper and not knowing the answers uh it was the most stressful experience of my life after that I promised I'd never do an exam again and I haven't I'll admit that passing those exams helped me land a decent job but I have never needed to use any of the information I learned while working here employers seem to think that by hiring someone with a high level qualification they are getting a better worker but um that's not

strictly true either some people at my workplace have amazing grades in their postgraduate qualifications but they are no better at their job than anyone else actually some of them are awful to work with people can be trained to do most jobs and the skills you need like having good people skills of being creative and being able to respond effectively to different situations just can't be tested in exams when I was in school I was always at the top of the class and aced my exams my teachers loved me and my classmates parents wish their kids

were more like me my classmates hated me of course but that didn't bother me to be honest doing well in exams gave me confidence and a sense of Pride although I confess I also felt I was better than everyone else which I now realize is not true I simply have a better aptitude for that way of learning I suppose now I work with people whose grades aren't even close to mine and they do better than me in the office you would think that would make me upset but that's not true although I haven't seen any

real Financial benefit from taking exams they have made me a disciplined person who values knowledge and I still take them now for the Hobbies I do in my spare time I think they are a valuable way to reflect on my progress and how well I'm doing many people think that exams don't test anything except your ability to take exams you know how well you can memorize and recall information they think that students would learn better by doing projects based on their own interests where what they learn isn't limited by an exam syllabus well that method

might work for a few people but in my view most people don't have enough motivation whereas an exam serves as a clear objective for students plus I personally think exams test all sorts of skills besides just your ability to remember stuff like your thought processes analytical ability logic intelligence and your application of knowledge honestly I wouldn't want anyone in a powerful position of responsibility who hadn't proved they had those skills so in that sense exams are essential of course the design of the paper is critical a multiple choice paper isn't going to test those sorts

of things