There have been a lot of arguments about whether examinations can encourage students to learn. In my opinion, students can learn many things from examinations. Let me explain why examinations can encourage students to learn.
First of all, I think exams can let students learn time management. Students have to spend a lot of time studying before exams. However, there are also other things such as homework and extra-curricular activities which students may need to spend time on. Therefore, students will learn to have time management before exams. Otherwise, they may not finish all the revision before exams and may get low marks.
Secondly, examinations can encourage students to learn to be self-disciplined. Nowadays most of the students like watching television and playing computer games. But before exams, students should have revision rather than play computer games and watch television. Therefore students will learn to be self-disciplined and not to play computer games or watch television for a long time in order to have more revision.
What is more, examination can encourage students to learn to find out answers by themselves. During revision for the exams, students may find something that they do not understand. Therefore they have to learn to find out the answers by themselves. They can find the answer by surfing the Internet and asking teachers and classmates so that they can have a better understanding of what they are learning.
Some people may think that if students get low marks in exams, they will be depressed and lose the motivation to have exams the next time. But I think students can learn how to face problems from examinations. If students get low marks in exams, they can learn to face this problem and try to do better in the next exam.
To sum up, no matter how students dislike exams, students can still learn a lot from them. Therefore, I believe that examinations can encourage students to learn.