[JerryLove]

That's one possability... The other is that you get teachers taht teach to the exam and students with poor critical thinking skills but who are well prepared for individual tests.

Unfortunately, when testing itself is what is in question; it's difficult to compare results... how do you test for the results of testing?

I personally think tha testing is over-utilized here, but I freely admit this is a "educated gut feeling" more than something I can simply cite up statistics at.

[bluishpaladin]

Unfortunately without standard exams you get teachers teaching whatever they feel like teaching and then the students just get screwed over.

I think that testing is over-utilized as well and that it's absured we have books and courses teaching people how to take a test when tests are supposed to be accurate indicators of achievement in of themsleves. Unfortunately I can't really think of any other way to measure student achievement that would be fair to everyone; it is fairly difficult to favor on things like multiple choice tests.

[JerryLove]

Unfortunately without standard exams you get teachers teaching whatever they feel like teaching and then the students just get screwed over.

Welcome to college

That's also why I feel there should be good auditing of teachers and classes. I like involving the human element here.