Joy English · Level C1 · Educationjoy-english.com
Assessment beyond final examinations
Name:Date:
Follow a lecture that weighs two sides and ends with a balanced conclusion.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/assessment-beyond-final-examinations
Words to know
- reliable
- Something you can trust to be correct.
- rote learning
- Learning by repeating, without full understanding.
- evaluation
- A judgement about quality or value.
- disadvantage
- To put someone in a worse position.
Answer key
- Today's lecture considers whether final examinations are the most reliable way of measuring what a student has really understood.'Today's lecture' links the s and l. 'Whether' (not 'weather') introduces an indirect question.
- Critics argue that a single high-pressure test rewards rote learning and benefits candidates who happen to perform well under stress.'High-pressure' may be written with or without a hyphen. 'Happen to' means by chance.
- Continuous assessment, by contrast, spreads the evaluation across many tasks, which can reveal gradual progress as well as isolated successes.'By contrast' signals the opposite view. 'Progress' is a noun here: PRO-gress.
- However, it also demands considerably more time from teachers, and it may disadvantage students who lack quiet places to study.'Lack' means do not have. 'Considerably' is said with three or four syllables: con-SID-ra-bly.
- The evidence therefore suggests that a balanced combination of both methods is likely to be fairer than either alone.'Therefore' signals a conclusion. 'Likely to be' is said 'likely-ta-be'. 'Fairer than' is a comparative.