As exam time in Grahamstown looms, anxiety increases amongst local students. With this in mind, Up4Debate asks: are exams really the best form of assessment?
As exam time in Grahamstown looms, anxiety increases amongst local students. With this in mind, Up4Debate asks: are exams really the best form of assessment?
What alternatives could there be? To debate these questions, we invited two guests from Rhodes University who represent students' interests from different perspectives: Siyanda Makhubo, academic councellor for the Student Representative Council, and Chrissie Boughey, Dean of Teaching and Learning and acting Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic and Student Affairs.
Siyanda Makhubo: "Students always refer to something going around on twitter.and that is CPF. You Cram, Pass and Forget. Students aren't learning about.all these people. Students would rather learn and recycle these theories and forget about these theories. Students fail to understand how this fits into their lives. How does it fit in today, in the 21st century? We do not understand the relevance of that." 
Prof Chrissie Boughey: "Why cram? Why shouldn't a student take the responsible attitude of learning, engaging and trying to understand right from the beginning of the course? … You've got to put them in an exam situation because only then will you ensure that plagiarism isn't taking place."
