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Less hard work, more sustainable learning: New forms of examination are needed, demands our author (symbolic image)
Photo: DaniloAndjus / Getty Images
I've been in the first exam phase of my studies for a month now. So instead of hanging out on my friends' couch, I hang out in the library every evening. Instead of cooking in peace, I get a Seitan kebab on the way home. But the worst thing is: Although I am enthusiastic about my subject of anthropology and the content, I don't have the feeling that I am really learning anything. At least not that I remember after the exams. Instead, I'm plagued by pressure and stress to perform - as if fears about the future, money worries and the general problems of growing up weren't stressful enough.
I'm not alone in this. According to the 2023 health report from the Techniker Krankenkasse, 68 percent of German students were exhausted due to stress in the year before the survey; According to the survey, exams were among the main stress factors. This is not the only reason why I think universities need new forms of examination.
Anthropology is a comparatively small course of study, so there is no need to sort out as much as in medicine or electrical engineering. Nevertheless, at the end of the day it is the grades that decide whether you can continue studying or not. Currently, they mainly say something about how much you were able to memorize. Yes, exams help you assess your own learning progress. Grades not only promote pressure to perform, but also competitiveness among fellow students.
Too much pure hard work
For example, my learning and exam plan this semester included a language test in Indonesian and two so-called essay exams. I had to answer questions in short essays. Sounds good at first - in reality, the questions were mainly about knowledge from the lectures that I had memorized.
I started two weeks before the first exam date, repeated the material from the lectures, and wrote down the most important data and facts on digital index cards. A week after the exam, I had already forgotten a lot of it. Like distant memories, fragments of the lectures sometimes float through my head before I fall asleep.
During this time and even more afterwards, the preparation felt like sheer hard work. As if I had studied primarily for the 90 minutes during the exam - not for life afterwards and especially not out of my own interest. I'm actually interested in the material. After the lectures, I often continue discussions with my fellow students, and even outside of my university environment I constantly talk about concepts such as Orientalism.
Homework in anthropology is more important than such exams; in the first semester I have to hand in one, and my fellow students also have to hand in two or three, depending on the seminar they choose. These works would actually be perfect for dealing intensively with a topic and understanding connections. In humanities courses, however, they often rely primarily on existing texts. That means: I should link theories together, but not create completely new ones.
Since the rapid rise of ChatGPT, we have been constantly hearing that this form of testing is outdated. Rightly so: There is no one in my university environment who hasn't at least tested the AI - to get food for thought, to get help with literature lists or with formatting, and yes, even with writing texts.
The current situation is this: many exams reward hard work instead of understanding. Thanks to AI, homework assignments no longer require the same skills as they did a few years ago. And the lecturers and universities know this too.
Fear of exams shouldn't hinder anyone's wishes
A lecturer therefore gave us a rather unconventional task. The homework for your reading course should not be a classic academic text, but rather an examination of AI. The course was about how societies can continue to live together after conflict. ChatGPT is now supposed to answer content-related questions via so-called “prompts”, to which we will then write a statement. In other words: develop your own thoughts, think critically. Exactly what I want.
New forms of examination could continue to test specialist knowledge and at the same time test whether you have understood the context. Anyone who discusses in group work, for example, has to defend their own view. And anyone who has to comment on concepts and theses discussed in seminars in so-called “response papers” learns to question critically. Oral presentations also require that you really know what you are talking about and can explain and connect what you have learned.
Even if such new forms are introduced, this does not necessarily change how much pressure the exam period puts students under. In the survey conducted by the Techniker Krankenkasse, almost a third of the students surveyed stated that they were afraid of bad grades and felt burdened by this, as well as of difficult or extensive learning material. According to a study by the International University (IU), exam anxiety even has consequences for one's professional future: one in four people affected by exam anxiety was therefore unable to pursue their dream job. A big loss, especially in times of skilled labor shortages.
In order to reduce the pressure, it could help to spread exams more widely throughout the semester. The grade for a module should not only be based on a single achievement, but on several. Not only would the exam have significantly less weight, but people would also have prepared for it over the course of the semester. Less hard work, more sustainable learning.
Of course, I can't remember everything I've heard and read in one semester. But I want to leave the exam phase with the feeling that my effort was worth it for my future - not just for the grade. Instead of cramming for tightly scheduled exams under pressure to perform or writing purely literature-based assignments, I would rather deal with the content of my studies in peace and in depth.
It is quite possible that my wish for new forms of examination will soon come true to some extent, not least thanks to AI.