Is the Exam System in Taiwan Efficient?

When I was in high school, I was never interested in learning English grammar. I’d rather believe that acquiring a language didn’t depend on techniques but on experiences. I learned neither the sentence structure nor the skills when taking a test. All that I did was to read the questions word by word, after my thorough comprehension, and then I answered. However, I seldom got outstanding grades in class.

However, since I needed to prepare for the entrance examinations, I determined to change. I gave up my “intuition theory” and took the “skill theory” instead. I started to learn how to answer a question without reading the whole, which is far more quickly and sometimes even more correctly. I was learning how to guess the “best title” of an article without comprehending it, and how to play with grammar skills in writing so as to gain higher scores in tests. Thereafter, my English grades increased dramatically. I entered a national university and got a pretty nice result in TOFEL iBT last year. Is seems that my English has a great improvement since I started to learn the techniques. However, is it real? Most of the time we use tests as the way to identify people’s ability, yet how can we accurately observe the person who is truly good in the subject or merely a master in taking tests?

Of course, how to properly examine students’ knowledge and ability is always a tough task for teachers. Nevertheless, it is also abnormal to depend on tests’ result only. Unfortunately, almost all institutions in Taiwan put great emphasize, maybe too much, on exams and licenses, such as the government, the enterprises, and schools. Have they ever questioned the testing system? Generally speaking, to get high scores, the most efficient means is to recite. Yet reciting doesn’t promise a thorough understanding. As a result, if we look forward to better the education in Taiwan, we should reconsider the goal of testing, instead of simply reforming the system blindly. Because we are all very clear that as long as there is an exam system, we Taiwanese will eventually find a way, like the techniques I’ve learnt in the cram school, to get high score.