Why Exams are Ballyhooed

 ..and why they shouldn't be, is the full title of this piece.

The major reason is that they don't give the full picture. It's a small part of what a student or applicant is. The other problem with exams are that they often become a game rather than a real test of knowledge, application or skill. The written exam as it is done in the education system is, more often than not, a test of how well you play the exam game-hence the undue importance of coaching classes. They can cook up the menu to order, and train you to crack any exam on earth, provided there's a pattern to the exam.

The purpose of an examination may not just be to test your regurgitation skills, but maybe also to test how you can think about a problem, or even state what is the problem. Too much emphasis on solving a given problem begs the question- is it the right problem, in the first place? A good example may be chasing GDP growth without looking at the Human Development Index, in national terms. You may achieve one at the cost of the other, so teaching tradeoffs or thinking about these in an exam may be important.

Life is multidimensional, and exams should also reflect that..a score alone cannot define a person, who may have talents that are not measured by it. Sometimes a narrow skill is required which an exam may test for a particular job, but in most cases, we need a broad set of thinking skills that can be applied in multiple ways. That, most exams fail to test. Maybe it's time to relook at it, pandemic or no pandemic...

We are Multidimensional

 This should be obvious, but we are usually obsessed with just one or two of these dimensions. It could be our height, weight, skin colour, educational qualification, job title, or something else..clothes we wear, for instance (a popular cartoon has a woman saying "I have nothing to wear" while staring at a wardrobe-full of clothes).

We are made up of/capable of feelings too, and evoke feelings in others-warmth, empathy, love, affection, and others. If you are a reliable friend or supportive parent or helpful grandparent, it counts for a lot, no matter how you score on some of the other dimensions. 

We probably need a rethink on the obsessions we have on romantic love as well, as it is only one form of expression, and there are many other fulfilling ones. It's fine for the movies, but life is a lot more..

We Are Multidimensional

Women more so than men I think, but we all are to some extent, multidimensional. I think the tendency to look at a human being as only one thing (or two) is extremely myopic.

We all function for about 60-70 years in ways that require many skills at work, and even more of them outside it. We might pursue a hobby (or many of these-photography and writing, in my case), maybe play a sport (I have played Golf, Badminton, Tennis and cricket at various points, apart from Table Tennis), travel alone or otherwise, interact with a variety of people from all walks of life (maids, drivers, assistants at work, bosses,...you get the picture), and some of these are not easy things to do.

We communicate, handle emotions of great variety, from anger, frustration, joy, hope, in ourselves and others too, and handle mundane tasks like cooking, cleaning, setting up a home, bringing up kids, buying a vehicle, and need various life skills to do that.

Did I mention academics? It is deliberately left to bring up the rear, because I want to make a point.

The End of the short lecture.

What is Success?

We often make the mistake of treating success as a single accomplishment or event, a light at the end of the tunnel. It may be that we are wrong. It is actually a multidimensional construct- ok, concept, if you want to be jargon-free.

What does that mean? In life, we go through various stages. We are expected to study, work, marry, have kids, care for aging parents, marry off kids, be grandparents if we live long enough, and have successful careers. So that’s about half a dozen different things already. I have not included relations with siblings or cousins or other relatives. If you add these up, the list of things we do (at least most people do) is a pretty long one.

Being a good parent may mean different things from being a success at work.  And being a good employee is quite different from being a good husband (or wife). Also, we may have preferences for certain roles, tasks out of the multiple ones that we have to perform.

It may be essential therefore, not to put too much pressure on oneself measuring only one aspect of yourself (or others) to the exclusion of all the other dimensions. It is quite possible that your kid may be bad at Maths or Science, but could be good at, and interested in say, arts or physiotherapy. Good parenting needs to look at these aspects of a kid’s personality and aptitude while counselling him on a path towards self-sufficiency. Even for your own self, blind pursuit of a particular position in an organisation may not be worthwhile, if all it does is cause frustration in every other sphere of life.

It is important to feel worthy, no doubt, but the measures of self-worth need not be blindly followed because someone else set them. Rather, you could set them yourself, regardless of what the world thinks. That may be the route for many of us to be “successful”.