Advantage Of Exam Oriented Approach

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background Information:

Malaysia was not the only country which still uses exam oriented in the education system. There are other countries, especially Asian countries, still use exam oriented approach. For example, countries such as China and Singapore still rely heavily on exam oriented approach in their educational system. China’s government is now calling for its Ministry of Education to make a reform of their education system so that the level of stress and depression among its students will go down. After all, China is one of the most competitive countries to live in due to the high population rate.

Exam oriented approach has its advantages and disadvantages. Some people believes that through examination, we can see

Students adopt ‘achieving’ approach in learning, which is the students focus more on obtaining high grades. Thus, graduates lack of soft skills and higher order thinking skills. In relation to this, exam-oriented approach does not benefit our graduates. The government and universities should apply student centered learning using problem-based learning (PBL) to focus on monitoring and assessment methods. 1.2 Problem statement:

Malaysian graduates are too exam-oriented. They do not possess qualities that employees are looking for in a candidate. According to The Star, in 2011, a survey conducted on 174,464 university students found that 24.6% of them were jobless for more than six months after graduating. They are supposed to develop those skills during their time in the universities. However, universities fail to do so. There is a mismatch between exam-orientated approach used at universities and the expectation of the industry onto graduates.

1.3 Objectives: This paper focuses on the aspect of students’ learning approach and how it impacts universities graduates’ employability. The three main objectives

Many companies in Malaysia agree that the public universities give minimum exposure to students about the workforce thus the students do not equipped themselves with required skills. Therefore, a few actions have been taken by the government to address this matter. According to New Straits Time, organizations such as Human Resource Development Fund’s Industrial Training Scheme (ITS), Multimedia Development Corporation’s (MDeC) MSC Malaysia Undergraduate Apprenticeship and Development Programme (UGRAD) and TalentCorp’s Structured Internship Program may be used to improve the quality of Malaysian graduates. Industry experts are called to give a talk or organized a camp to share knowledge with students about the work field. However, the universities must also do their part in improving the quality of their graduates. The teaching method needs to be changed from exam-oriented approach to assessment