Exam

This is an accepted version of this page An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs).

However these examinations did not offer an official avenue to government appointment, the majority of which were filled through recommendations based on qualities such as social status, morals, and ability.

During the Song dynasty the emperors expanded both examinations and the government school system, in part to counter the influence of hereditary nobility, increasing the number of degree holders to more than four to five times that of the Tang.

From the Song dynasty onward, the examinations played the primary role in selecting scholar-officials, who formed the literati elite of society.

However the examinations co-existed with other forms of recruitment such as direct appointments for the ruling family, nominations, quotas, clerical promotions, sale of official titles, and special procedures for eunuchs.

In practice both before and after this, the examinations were irregularly implemented for significant periods of time: thus, the calculated statistical averages for the number of degrees conferred annually should be understood in this context.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the system contributed to the narrow and focused nature of intellectual life and enhanced the autocratic power of the emperor.

As in China, the content of the examinations focused on the Confucian canon and ensured a loyal scholar bureaucrat class which upheld the throne.

It received great attention from the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who viewed it and its Confucian appeal to rationalism favorably in comparison to religious reliance on "apocalypse."

During the 18th century, the imperial examinations were often discussed in conjunction with Confucianism, which attracted great attention from contemporary European thinkers such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Baron d'Holbach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller.

The candidate gave a public lecture of two prepared passages assigned to him from the civil or canon law, and then doctors asked him questions, or expressed objections to answers.

[13] In 1847 and 1856, Thomas Taylor Meadows strongly recommended the adoption of the Chinese principle of competitive examinations in Great Britain in his Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China.

According to Meadows, "the long duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and merit only.

"[15] Both Thomas Babington Macaulay, who was instrumental in passing the Saint Helena Act 1833, and Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, who prepared the Northcote–Trevelyan Report that catalyzed the British civil service, were familiar with Chinese history and institutions.

[16] When the report was brought up in parliament in 1853, Lord Monteagle argued against the implementation of open examinations because it was a Chinese system and China was not an "enlightened country."

The Earl of Granville did not deny this but argued in favor of the examination system, considering that the minority Manchus had been able to rule China with it for over 200 years.

"[12] After Great Britain's successful implementation of systematic, open, and competitive examinations in India in the 19th century, similar systems were instituted in the United Kingdom itself, and in other Western nations.

When Thomas Jenckes made a Report from the Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment in 1868, it contained a chapter on the civil service in China.

[12]Standardized testing began to influence the method of examination in British universities from the 1850s, where oral exams had common since the Middle Ages.

[23][24] High school students in the United States may also take Advanced Placement tests on specific subjects to fulfill university-level credit.

The other criteria in this case may include the applicant's grades from high school, extracurricular activities, personal statement, and letters of recommendations.

For example, Mensa International is a high-IQ society that requires individuals to score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised IQ test.

[32] Assessment types include:[33][34][35] Criterion-referenced tests are designed to measure student performance against a fixed set of criteria or learning standards.

Competitive examinations are considered an egalitarian way to select worthy applicants without risking influence peddling, bias or other concerns.

[40] As an educational tool, multiple-choice items do not allow test takers to demonstrate knowledge beyond the choices provided and may even encourage guessing or approximation due to the presence of at least one correct answer.

Instructions to exam candidates rely on the use of command words, which direct the examinee to respond in a particular way, for example by describing or defining a concept, or comparing and contrasting two or more scenarios or events.

However, a simple quiz usually does not count very much, and instructors usually provide this type of test as a formative assessment to help determine whether the student is learning the material.

Higher-level mathematical papers may include variations on true/false, where the candidate is given a statement and asked to verify its validity by direct proof or stating a counterexample.

Throughout the 20th century, scientific evidence emerged demonstrating the usefulness of strength training and aerobic exercise in maintaining overall health, and more agencies began to incorporate standardized fitness testing.

However, French high school students hoping to continue their studies at university level will sit a national exam, known as the Baccalauréat.