Well, in my opinion it serves only to save time for the teacher.
It is assumed that students acquire knowledge throughout the course in X subject.
The purpose of this learning has to be necessarily a paper with questions that test the ability to remember (just remember not to know) from the student?
If one assumes that the student has been able to select the subjects that he wanted, the subjects who showed more interest or curiosity, and in the course he could learn something (which is retained in memory, something that really matters to him, something that he think that are better than other things), why the teacher would have to prove the students (what they called "knowledge"), if the student has already learned something, and he really knows that from the beginning of the course until X time their knowledge has increased?
I think that teachers must do tests to get a picture of the knowledge of the student. A photograph, not a video. The video would be the progress of the student, not by a test with the pressure that often leads. I know that finding an alternative method can be difficult, but it could exist. One method could be a nice teacher-student conversation, a conversation where the teacher will ask the questions and help the student. The teachers couldn't give the answer, but they will refresh the student's memory.
Perhaps it is not real for lack of time (most secure), and for this, or for laziness of the teacher, some students may suspend a subject because an educator says that he "does not rise to sufficient" when the student could fail for the pressure or simply, for a lapsus or "bad memory". His bad memory could not remember what the teacher asks (in history exams, for example), or what the teacher think that is "most important" or simply, what the teacher considered that is "more difficult" and therefore more important .
Furthermore, this type of examinations have (how not) traps, the typical "mini answer sheet". And how the teacher can approve a student who did not acquire any knowledge, a student who didn't do what these tests require, remember?Yes, the teacher only has to got an answer sheet and correct the students test. They only has to put a number, a number that will say "how much things had learnt the student", or, how I say, "How much things had to remind the student for the X day".
Well, maybe some things can not change, until then, we have to resign a little. =D
