Why Exams Matter - and Don't Matter at All
As I walk around the end-of-year exam venue in silent, unhurried stealth, I am at the same time awed by the intensity of the experience that 'final exams' presents, amazed by the logistical complexity of ensuring exam integrity (which, ironically, relies on administrators assuming that none of us has any), and sobered by the fact that, after around 12 years of formal schooling there are some that will stumble at this most significant (and simultaneously completely irrelevant) hurdle - for when a child fails a final exam she or he is as much failed as they themselves have failed.
Exams are, at once, a critical benchmark that holds systemized education together, and a completely meaningless measure of momentary knowledge. Exams act as a systemic gate-keeper, designed to fit young people into boxes. I often wonder why cattle walk so willingly into an abattoir, compliant and oblivious of the system that is there to chop them, box them, and ship them off for sale. A cynic may regard this highly complex exam process as an intellectual abattoir of sorts, and wonder the same about those who yield themselves so resignedly to it.
Of course, for most of us, systems are necessary to provide opportunity of advancement, and exams provide an aspirational pathway that would be chaotic and random at scale without them. They are, in a sense, a necessary evil. Critically, though, exams have exaggerated importance and do little to measure the most important parts of education - a love of learning and critical thinking skills. When students are inspired to learn and are equipped to think independently, they develop the critical life skills of adaptability, a growth mindset, and an appreciation of lifelong learning.
I have spent an inordinate proportion of my professional life engaged in post-fact analysis of exams, and, like with most things examined over time, there are some patterns that have become obvious.
Firstly, there is no such thing as luck. It may be that, once in a while, we can do well without hard work and preparation, and sometimes we try hard and fail. Over time, however, hard work always pays off. The vast majority of the most successful pupils I have encountered over time are average students with an above average work ethic. The vast majority of "less successful" pupils that I encounter are intelligent enough to achieve much better if only their attitude and work ethic were positive.
Secondly, success is a deeply personal thing. We cannot all get distinctions in everything. It would be a weird and pointless world if we could. Indeed, the world is made infinitely interesting by the infinite differences between us. We all have unique gifts, and sometimes the greatest success is in finally cracking a "d" in a subject after a long battle with it. From where I sit, success most often does not come from talent alone. The world is full of talented failures. Success is the natural and logical consequence of effort and attitude complementing and compensating for talent or the lack thereof.
Thirdly, life is a process, not a destination. Sometimes we try and we succeed. Sometimes, we try and we fail. Failing is not the end point. It is, instead, the beginning of the next step. Failure is often the best teacher of all. We need to learn to manage failure and value it as much as success in the process of life. The trick is to keep on trying.
Fourthly, we are not just that what we achieve. We have each been created to be unique, with unique gifts and talents to contribute to the richness of life. That personal thing, success, comes and goes, leaving our essential humanity untouched. It is character that defines the person - things like integrity, tenacity, passion, and perseverance. We have absolute control over those.
As intense as this season is, it shall soon be over, and those all-important results will have opened or closed the doors they are designed to control. As educators, our role requires of us to think beyond exams. It requires of us a recognition of the unique giftedness of every child that we teach. It requires the ability to motivate them to participate according to their gifts and recognise their own giftedness - to support them in their needs, to show them love, to challenge them, to discipline them by providing firm but fair boundaries, to know them - not as exam results or 'fee-paying units', but as the unique person filled with infinite potential that they are.
Charles Colton said it best when he wrote: "Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer."