Last year I had to miss my final exams due to personal engagements. All but two of my teachers gave me the option to either take or not take my exams. The teachers who gave me the options were ones that have had reputations for being very strict about academics.

Of course, I chose not to take them, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t learn anything or that everything I learned disappeared.   It just meant that I didn’t have to go through hours of stress, and studying, or in other words hours of and useless memorizing.

Like all students, I start to stress out and complain when the dreaded exam week comes along. I may even spend more time complaining than actually studying.

I’m not one to say grades shouldn’t be so important.  I actually believe just the opposite. Grades are important.  However, exams are different. Exams just teach us how to cram and complain.

During midterms, social studies teacher Richard Wojewodzki gave his freshman Honors Human Geography Class a paperless exam which they were able to do together. They also didn’t have to cram for it the night before.  The “exam” included questions that dealt with current events and looking things up.  Things that are actually important for students to know and learn.

Not only did the students have to answer questions that are worth knowing, but they had to do it together. As students, we are constantly told that once we get into the real world, we will have to work with people we like and don’t like. This exam seems to emulate the real world instead of just wasting two hours in solitude.

I have never taken one these “exams,” but I can’t help but to wonder how much better the benefits it would be than a two- hour long classic standardized test. When in real life will we ever need to take an exam? Probably rarely, if ever.  When in real life will I have to work with others and research? Mostly likely every day.

This exam seems to actually test on material which was learned not just test on how to take a test. Students are already forced to take the objective SAT. Why should we have to sit through the agony of a classic exam when the future calls for a new assessment?

It’s the 21st Century, an era based on technology and moving forward. In a world where we are educated to prepare for the work force, an objective an exam is the past and a real life assessment is the exam of the future.

Eva Bialobrzeski is a In-Depth Editor for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com.