{"id":25326,"date":"2024-04-03T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25326"},"modified":"2024-03-27T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T19:03:10","slug":"not-the-last-word-abolish-exams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/04\/03\/not-the-last-word-abolish-exams\/","title":{"rendered":"Not the Last Word<\/em>: Abolish exams"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve written before about my belief that exams are generally a poor way to review a person\u2019s knowledge about a subject. I\u2019m still holding tight to that belief, as it was recently reinforced when I watched a documentary about Finland\u2019s education system.<\/p>\n

In 1968, Finland\u2019s system changed when parliament introduced legislation introducing a new comprehensive school system, replacing a two-tiered system of civic schools and grammar schools.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Not the Last Word<\/em> is a column appearing in every issue of Nexus<\/em> (photo by Emily Welch\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They decided to abolish exams completely and teach their students how to learn properly. In middle school, the focus is on games, group reading, and creativity. Once in high school, the focus on creativity will continue, and when Finnish students reach high school, they have all read a great deal.<\/p>\n

All students will have the same education, as well\u2014there\u2019s no difference between schools. All schools are public and each student goes to school in whichever district they live, regardless of their family\u2019s wealth and status.<\/p>\n

This all sounds different, and strange, and wonderful.<\/p>\n

I feel strongly about this subject because exams are hard for me. I have the after-effects of a traumatic brain injury from my early \u201920s, and have ADD. However, give me a paper to write and I will kick serious ass, plus that information will resonate and stick better in my brain if I\u2019m researching it and writing about it rather than trying to memorize terms and dates. I\u2019ve tried all sorts of tricks for exam studying\u2014tutors, flashcards, at-home quizzes\u2014but when the time comes to sit and vomit out a bunch of newly stored info, my anxiety and lack of ability to memorize always prevail.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I study hard. I complete assignments and participate in classes with everything I\u2019ve got. So why should I continue getting screwed over at exam time?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I firmly believe that exams are not a good way to show what students have learned. They are one method, entirely based on one type of thinking.<\/p>\n

I think that we, as forward-thinking Canadians, should try to do something new and see what prevails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve written before about my belief that exams are generally a poor way to review a person\u2019s knowledge about a subject. I\u2019m still holding tight to that belief, as it was recently reinforced when I watched a documentary about Finland\u2019s education system. In 1968, Finland\u2019s system changed when parliament introduced legislation introducing a new comprehensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,309],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-april-3-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25327,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25326\/revisions\/25327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}