WHAT IF THERE WERE NO EXAMS?

I took active participation in debates in secondary school. Don't look at me like an effico. All I did was to sit at the back seat and analyse the topic while watching the debaters perform. Hehehe...What? Oh, you thought I meant I actually went up stage to argue? Nah, I didn't have strength to memorize three pages full of arguments. In all my years of active participation *winks* there was one topic that stood out on my list of favourite topics and it was "Is examination the true test of Knowledge" I spent more time arguing on this topic with members of my observatory group in the back seat, my point being that one cannot really use exams to measure intelligence when most teachers insisted we memorize a textbook's definition of terms and vomit it on our answer sheets to make marking easy for them. In most exams, your understanding of a concept didn't matter. Well that's a story for another day. But my gist today is based on a thought I have been processing; a world I have been dreaming of; an idea that has grown deep roots in my mind for a long time.

What if there were no exams in schools? What would you have done differently?

Uh huh! I see your eyes shining...don't allow those truancy thoughts running through your mind. But what if you had the power make exams disappear? Would you have loved to explore more subjects knowing you don't have anything to lose? While you warm up to share your ideas on this matter, let me share mine. If there were no exam eh...

I would have loved to explore various subjects like Physics and Chemistry but just at introductory level. I would have loved to continue Fine Arts without the fear of writing it in WAEC as the teacher threatened me. I would have loved to add History to my lists of subjects because I love to know the stories behind things. I would have loved to take a sneak peek into Further Maths, emphasis on the sneak peek. Geography...uh...still loading that thought. Accounts...didn't take that subject even though I studied it in the University and still won't. I would have crashed into classes and enjoyed learning without the heartache of exams.

But you know what? Exams or no exams, I'm glad that I have a choice to learn whatever I want via the internet and I can engage in intelligent discussions and just learn for the joy of it and not because I have to write exams. I am as interested in medical research as I am in Global warming. I watch Disney Channel and still can't get enough of CNBC Africa, Bloomberg, Style Network and Food Network. It's called locating learning amusement park and as my friend, TJ.Bard will say, "the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited."

So guys, let's hear yours

If you had the magic wand to make exams disappear what would you have done differently and what subjects would you have taken interest in?