All the schools in Hong Kong have examinations. But there are still some arguments about whether examinations encourage students to learn. In my opinion, examinations cannot encourage students to learn. Let me explain why I support that.
First of all, not many students will do revision every day. That means most of them only do revision when exams are coming. They won’t really learn the details. They will just memorize the facts and use them in exams. After exams, everything will disappear from their brains. Students cannot really learn in that short period of time.
Secondly, examinations will affect students’ health when they study very hard for the exams. Students usually study very hard when exams are coming. Some of them even use their sleeping time to study to exchange for higher marks. But actually it will affect them. They can’t concentrate easily during the exams. That will affect their results directly. If they can’t get good results, some of them might even be depressed because they have too much pressure, which usually comes from their family or the comparison with others. Exams cannot push students to learn.
Besides, some students will only recite books. They think exams are just tests. They are only used for testing their academic level. They are useless for them. So they will just recite words from books and use them in exams. The exam paper is just a writing paper for them. They don’t think examinations are a good way for them to learn. Exams are just the way to test their memories.
To sum up, students will only recite some information and they will forget it very quickly after exams. Exams will also affect their health. So examinations cannot encourage students to learn.