Ivy League schools move away from traditional testing

Nathan Johnson | Writer

Objective tests have been the norm for decades, while some institutions are wondering if they are still the future. Credit: Tjevans via Pixabay

With the rise of both artificial intelligence and online testing, cheating on college exams has become more prevalent. To combat this, some higher education institutions are moving towards oral assessments, which makes testing more immediate and personal and makes students confidently learn material for life instead of just memorizing information for a test.

This shift in assessment is already happening at Ivy League schools like Cornell University and Princeton University, where students are evaluated on deeper levels of thinking  past memorization. 

Even on an international level, institutions are straying away from commonplace pen and paper or online testing. University College London has been utilizing oral assessments in live questioning to measure the understanding of a subject through dialogue.

Cornell’s teaching resources page says that oral assessments “encourage students to prepare, research, and study differently or more deeply when they know they will need to explain, teach, or present a topic verbally,” as well as saying that oral exams are good for providing immediate feedback and needed corrections so that students can learn from their mistakes during the test for the future.

Colleges have also said that it is good to practice communication skills in showing fluency in what the student is talking about. Although, this could be a double edged sword, as students with poorer communication skills could be presented with a larger challenge when it comes to oral assessments. 

“In my personal case I think oral exams are totally unrealistic,” Aerospace Engineering Major Seth Schaeffer says, “An Aerospace Engineering test is challenging enough, I couldn't imagine an oral exam .”

While traditional multiple choice and open ended questions aren’t going to be thrown to the side for this form of testing, schools are beginning to experiment with different ways to evaluate as they realize not everyone thrives taking tests the same way.