Role cards

Prof. G. Aged 51

You are Head of the English Department and conduct a special meet­ing to discuss what form of assessment is more efficient and reliable: ex­ams or continuous assessment. You are of the opinion that exams are a well-tried system, but you do not object to abolishing exams in one of the years, possibly in the first year, and introducing continuous assess­ment as an experiment.

At the end of the discussion you sum up the arguments presented

and hold a vote.

NB: The results of the vote will be taken to the Academic secretary of the university.

Lecturer M. Aged 49

You are a senior lecturer in the English Department. You are con­vinced that exams are the best quick way of assessing a student. Their reliability has been proved again and again. The exam system may not be perfect, but it's the best we have; it may be painful, but so are many things in life. You voice your support for the exams rather cat­egorically.

Lecturer E. Aged 54

You are a senior lecturer in the English Department. You agree that the most successful students are not always the best educated, they are the best trained in the technique or working under duress/pressure. Possible faults of the exams are not the faults of the system itself but of the teacher — that is your conviction. However there are advantages in continuous assessment, as it is probably more objective, but it needs to

be proved/tested. So you suggest an experiment (exams abolished, con­tinuous assessment introduced) with a group of students.

Lecturer P. Aged 32

You are a junior lecturer in the English Department. You think that
exams as a form of assessment must be abolished altogether. Your argu­
ments are as follows: firstly, exams are a test of memory not ability. They
encourage memorising, restrict reading and induce cramming and sec­
ondly, as anxiety-makers exams are second to none, because so much
depends on them.
Lecturer A.. Aged 29

You are a junior lecturer in the English Department. You speak in
favour of continuous assessment as it is more objective and a student
has to work continuously but not rapidly under the extreme pressure of
exams. It motivates a student to read widely and to seek more and more
knowledge, eliminating cramming. Besides it's a pity that teachers them­
selves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching
their subjects they are reduced to training their students in exam tech­
niques which they despise.
Ann/Peter Aged 22

You are a final-year student in the English Department. You are clev­
er and a bit lazy. You have a knack of concentration under pressure and
are always successful at exams. You are against continuous assessment
because it is sure to reveal the gaps in your knowledge. While stating
your arguments you address Lecturer E., a senior lecturer, because he/
she will be your examiner this term.
Lucy/Andrew Aged 23

You are a final-year student in the English Department. You think exams should be abolished. Your arguments are, firstly, no one can show his knowledge to advantage after a sleepless night or when he/she is in mortal terror (some recollections of your personal experience would serve as good proof), secondly, examiners may be subjective at times.

NB: You are an industrious student, you work hard during the term but unlike Ann/Peter you don't have a knack of working rapidly under the extreme pressure of exams.

Postgraduate S. Aged 27

You are a postgraduate in the English Department. You are doing research on the new methods of assessment. You disagree that the meth­ods of testing a person's knowledge and ability remain as primitive as in the past. You argue that extensive research into objective testing tech­niques has been carried out. There are already complex checking sys­tems, among them computers, used by examiners to specially devised tests. In addition exams may be supplemented by the teachers' monthly assessment.

Dorothy/Donald Parker Aged 35

You are a visiting English teacher. You are very much interested in the Russian way of life. That day you are present at a meeting of the staff of the English Department where a possible shift from exams to contin­uous assessment is being discussed. You are a true supporter of exams as you think it is an old and widely-spread system of assessing students' knowledge. In your country practically all exams are written (oral ex­ams are a rare exception for modern languages). You know that in some universities they've introduced continuous assessment but you person­ally are rather sceptical about it.