2020 saw school and university exams cancelled around the world. 2021 may be the same - several nations have already announced they have cancelled their traditional paper and pen exams. The traditional exam as we know it is being replaced with teacher and school assessments or slimmed down versions of their former selves. All of which is causing exams to be examined in much more depth than when everything runs as usual. The answers are surprising many because there appears to be no consensus on what exams are ultimately for.

So to help this along we are adding to the debate today by discussing ''What is the ultimate purpose of an exam?'

eAA member and senior examiner and exam question writer, Paula Goddard hosts this podcast, along with guests Graham Hudson, eAA Secretary; Alison McCree, Director of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors and Ian Grove-Stephensen: CEO of Yacapaca Formative Assessment and Free Text Marking.

Panel Contact details:

Paula Goddard: eAA member and senior examiner and exam question writer

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-goddard-88b2397/

Twitter @exam_writer

Graham Hudson: Secretary of the e-Assessment Association and has been involved in national and international assessments for over 35 years.

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamhudson/

Alison McCree: Director of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, a membership organisation whose aim is to improve standards in educational assessment

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-mccree-9a0998150/

Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors website 

https://www.herts.ac.uk/ciea/chartered-institute-of-educational-assessors

Ian Grove-Stephensen: CEO of Yacapaca Formative Assessment and Free Text Marking

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-grove-stephensen/

Yacapaca website https://yacapaca.com/