Expository Essay
CCT’s are a student’s worst nightmare, the gruesome questions and the horrendous test of time. The Common Class Tests are an arduous battle of pen and paper and for many; this is in fact a good reason to scrap the CCTs. However, there are more logical reasons behind the removal of CCTs, and it this reasons that this piece of work will explore.
It will be a mistake if this piece of work merely displays measly justifications without providing any rational. Instead a more effective way would be to first examine the purpose of CCTs.
The CCTs exist to serve 2 basic purposes. This first is to act as a test for the student’s ability. By using a time based assessment, CCTs serve to gauge the student’s ability and how much the student s has learnt. The second purpose of CCTs is to establish true learning. By having an assessment at the end of a term, CCTs act as a deterrent to slacking. In essence, it allows for true learning to take place because it creates a scenario where students have to take the path of studying and true learning.
But behind the façade of ascertaining true academic excellence and the testing of student’s ability, the CCTs does not fulfill the purposes that it exists to serve. This will be proven and driven by the commentary’s two points.
The first point that this commentary would like to prove would be that CCTs do not facilitate true learning. Contrary to popular belief, CCT’s do not affirm true learning but rather goes against this concept.
An analogy will be employed here. CCT’s only moulds students into fish brains. According to studies conducted by various renowned universities, fish brains cannot store much information, remembering things and forgetting them immediately.
Similarly, CCT’s only let students memorize huge amount of test, regurgitate it during tests, excel and forget all information after that. This is a loophole in the CCTs, and it is a loophole that allows students to bypass this check and balance. This loophole is exploited and we see no true learning but rather skills of memorizing, spitting and forgetting. Hence, no real learning is affirmed and hence CCTs should be scrapped.
Even if we assume that real learning can take place, the fact still remains that CCTs are not a reliable test. This I base on the fact that the scenario that the CCTs create is not conducive for a real test. The nature of CCTs is that they are test that take place one after another and there is a stress that tags along with this. Stress from the many tests and stress from studying.
Stress can either make a diamond or burst a pipe. Research by the University of Tennessee has proven that 96% of students are unable to work well under pressure. It follows that CCT’s are not effective in gauging a student’s ability.
Therefore, based on the fact that CCTs are unable to fulfill the very same purposes it was created for but rather serve the master of stress. It follows that CCT’s are only a psychological liability and should be scrapped. Scrap the CCTs, save the world.
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