There can be a wide variety of different purposes for the assessment of students. Both staff and students have views about what these purposes might be, but there is evidence that their views do not always coincide. The little evidence that exists relating to the effectiveness of assessment in achieving its purposes is not encouraging. Assessment seems to lead students to adopt any strategy which they think will lead to a good mark, including rote learning, game playing and cheating. Things may improve if lecturers communicate clearly with students what the purposes of assessment are and ensure that their marking reflects those purposes.
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