"Exam:: Boon or Burden?" Ask this to a student who is taking an exam. He will answer "burden". Ask the same question to him twenty years later when he after competiting with others have bagged a high post, he will answer "boon". The answer is different depending upon the situation.There are various educationlist who today believe that exam rather too many exams unnecessarily create tremendous pressure in the minds of the young pupil. Since the age of 3, we are thrown into the battlefield called career life.The competition is so fierce now-a-days that sometimes 24 hours doesnot seem to be enough. So some believe that this rat race or exam mania must stop. Many leading psychologists and psychiatrists all around the world have raised their voices against the traditional pattern of exams. They suggested that instead of taking serious exams, evaluate by means of inducing fun. So we can witness grading systems, more practicals and project works and use of multimedia. Instead of taking single exam, it is broken into modules to ease off the pressure. It is believed that if eagerness and attitude can be induced to the learning process, a time will come when there would be no need of taking exams.

But the question that arises now is that if there were no exams, how can one select the best from the rest. It is true that we can never eliminate the less suitable ones unless we conduct examinations. Also had there been no exams, students might had lost all their enthusiasm and interest in studies. It is due to the fear of failure only that we feel compel to study. It  is due to the fear of parents; of society; of self esteem that when one scores a good marks it motivates that person to do even better. It also induce in us the sportsman spirit, ie, it inspire us to make inpossible possible through sheer hard work.

Unfortunately our society had never really understood the importance of exam. Instead of making exam a challenging task for the pupil, they have made it a burden. Exams are meant to check the abilities, so that the pupils can understand their weakness and work on it. But alas, today , society has taken exam to such a level, that we find small children commiting suicide. To conclude we can say that exams are necessary and it must be conducted, but its Dignity, its Importance, its Essence must be preserved.