Only formal examinations, written or practical, can give a clear picture of students’ true knowledge and ability at university level. Continuous assessment like course work and projects are poor measures of student ability.

How far do you agree with this latter statement?

 The debate about how to assess students at university has been raging as long as such institutions have existed. In one group, there are those who believe the only sure way to test the ability to study or achievement is through regular evaluation during the course, yet others do NOT agree that the mentioned-idea would be an effective alternative to get to know about pupils’ information and understanding about an academic subject, so they suggest formal examinations. In my point of view, each approach has its own merits and demerits.

 To begin with, although steady assessment seems to have been a fair method, it is argued the increased use of the internet has shown the difficulty that teachers have in assessing their students’ course work. For instance, scholars can download vast amounts of material from the web which is highly unlikely for a teacher to mange to check whether the student did, in fact, do the work themselves or not. The student may have done part of the work for a project; nonetheless, it is difficult for the tutor to assess the student properly. The problem then is that if the teacher ignores the possibility that the student stole the idea from somewhere else, a body of workers will be produced who are not really up to the job.

Nevertheless, in the other group are those who feel judging a student’s work by looking at what they have achieved during the semester is not proper, yet final formal written exams are much more reasonable; however, based on recent statistics issued by Stanford University Research Center 45% of students do not perform well under pressure in exams. They may know the information that they are asked to write about very well, but it is probable their performance does not reflect their knowledge; hence, it would be wrong to destroy someone’s future just because they get anxious while taking a test. An illustration of this is my wife. If it weren’t for the steady evaluations, she would have failed most her exams due to feeling uneasy during the formal tests.

 The answer, I feel, lies somewhere in the middle. A university degree should be based on a combination of both forms of assessments. The proportion of marks given to each type of assessment could depend on the nature of the course. For example, a particular course, say an MA, may be more research based work, which would be better assessed by course work like essays etc. In this case however, it is still wise to have an examination like an oral or a viva where the student is examined in detail about the content of what they have written.

 In summary, it is clear that both options have their own advantages. As a university lecturer who has been teaching for more than 15 years I should concede for an evaluation system to be reliable it ought to be continuous.

 Analysis

A. Task response:

1. This essay has covered all parts of the given topic most probably because the candidate has spent enough time on comprehending the topic before he/she started to write.

2. The candidate has stated his own opinion definitely regarding the topic.

3. The central paragraphs of the essay have been supported with a range of techniques like examples

4. This candidate has applied 400 words, which has far exceeded the mentioned standard

B. Coherence & cohesion:

1. The candidate has managed to express his/her position clearly and successfully because of applying correct & appropriate linkers such as who, yet, so, hence, nonetheless, to begin with, ….

۲٫ This piece of writing is both coherent (ideas have been arranged logically) & cohesive.

C. Grammar:

1. This candidate has used a wide range of structures including adjective clause, complex/compound sentences, …; more importantly, they are correct which mean the candidate has shown an excellent command of English structures by making mistakes in neither basic ones nor advanced ones .

2. The candidate has paid special attention to punctuation.

D. Vocabulary:

1. This candidate has used a wide range of appropriate & different words whose collocations are correct, for instance assess, proportion, reliable, demerit, …

۲٫ There is no sign of repetitive words or contractions in the essay; also, spelling and capitalization have been taken care of flawlessly.

 Examiner’s final comment:

Totally, this essay seems good enough to be worthy of IELTS Band 7.5 because of the above-mentioned plus points.