Imagine, you are Kader. You see that your friend Harun is very much fed up with the present examination system. He says that examinations are useless and unnecessary. But you think otherwise.
Now, Write a dialogue between you and Harun on the present system of examination.
Kader : Look here, Harun. You seem to be disgusted with something. Is anything wrong?
Harun : Yes, this is the curse of examination system. I wish it could be shirked off. I am sick of swotting for it. What hell is the use of examination any way?
Kader : Well, I took think. It’s a great nuisance. But I don’t see how we can get on without it.
Harun : But why?
Kader : Well, there may be some sort of tests from time to time to assess what we’ve really learnt, and how far we’ve progressed in our studies. In what other way can a university tell whether one’s fit to write B.A. after one’s name?
Harun : I don’t know. But I don’t believe examinations are real tests. You can get through an examination by cramming. But cramming is not education. Doesn’t a crammer forget all he ever know? Then there’s a good deal of luck about it also. Suppose your paper is looked over by a stiff examiner and mine by a lenient one. I pass and you fail, but you’re a better student than I. Then again a lot may get through simply by cheating.
Kader : You’re quite right. But aren’t these cases exceptional? No human rules can be perfect. To show that the examination system has its defects, does not prove it, on the whole, useless or unnecessary. In general, I think examinations are fair tests.
Harun : I’m afraid, I’m not convinced.
Kader : Very well. Can you suggest any other way of testing a man’s fitness?
Harun : No, I can’t. But I feel that examinations aren’t only unnecessary, but they’re also positively harmful. Very often hard study required for an examination tells upon a student’s health. Some fellows get quite ill with over-study.
Kader : Here I disagree. Not with over-study, but with feverish cramming in the last few weeks. If you waste most of your time at college and then try to cram a two years’ course of study into a few weeks, it’s quite likely you’ll break down. Examinations do not hurt students who work methodically and regularly throughout their course.
Harun : Well, I think, we’d rather study much better if we had not always some wretched examinations looming up ahead.
Kader : A few might. But many students would not work at all. It’s only the fact that they’ll be examined in what they have learnt that makes some people study at all. After all, an examination is a very useful stimulus to work.