Simply Me

Exam season is here again for me. For the next two weeks i have to labour and try to pass. The only consolation is that with these exam, i say bye to university exams( I dont want a postgraduate degree, i have suffered enough).

As i prepare for this final exam, am asking myself if exams serve a noble purpose, if they have a noble purpose at all. Are they just for sifting the maize from the chaff, for separating the 'bright' from the 'stupid'? Can a single or even collective test score be considered our measure of intelligence? I tend to think that exams defeat their purpose. They never pick out the best. How else do you explain the fact that a person so good in exams becomes a total failure in work. Exams also aid the establishment of status classes in society, at least here in kenya. The rich kids go to the best schools, where they are then literaly drillied to pass exams. In this schools, one is thought to pass exams...no need to know because of knowledge, just pass the exams and then go get an ivy league education and come back to kenya to take your dads job. All these time the poor kid, who has a real appetite for knowledge doesnt get the necessary resources to do well in exams. At best, (s)he goes to a mid level college, otherwise its just another statitic, a drop out, for the rich guys to read about.

Perharps its a case of Hobson's choice. Perharps the system is not to blame. Perharps there is just no other way of testing one's creativity, imagination, innovativeness, effort and personality. But there is no consolation that exams fail to capture any of those attributes.

"You're a wonderful human being, but the tests don't show it."
Educator Chuck Lavaroni to Gilbert Medeiros after telling him he shouldn't plan to go to college as a result of his test scores. Chuck later met Gilbert at a party in Marin County, only to hear that Gilbert got a law degree, worked as vice president for a large real estate firm, owned and ran 5 different companies