system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Public exams in schools are relics of an outdated system and should be removed; they serve no useful purpose in preparing children for real life.

As children we are taught that we are essentially the same under the eye of authority, and that what determines one's worth is a number on a written assessment. Children are shown that it's the one that memorises information and retains it the best that achieves the most, or the one that can work under timed conditions. This type of erosion of the individual is not uncommon by the school system, but that is a whole different fish to fry.

Exams create a very stressful experience and a negative view of education in children. The former is caused by timed conditions, an emphasis on memorisation \(which is a flawed mechanism, as no matter how much you study you will still forget something\) and a huge well of information taken from various sources, many of which children will have little to no care for \(the average student in England will take around 7\-11 GCSE subjects, many of which they drop immediately after they finish them\). 

This informational cramming is very stressful during a period which the child is developing into an adult, a time when they should be focusing on how to form relationships, meeting new people, finding new hobbies to enjoy. This starvation of free time and added stress has many knock\-on effects, namely addiction to smoking, video\-games and alcohol. 

Furthermore, education begins to be seen as a series of hurdles one has to jump over, where your worth is not determined  by the sum of all your various qualities, talents and interests. Due to exams' incredibly narrow\-dimensional nature, only one or two qualities can be tested at one time. This would be fine \(given the 20\+ exams taken by students each year\), except some of these skills need to be developed over a long period of time, such as critical thinking and deriving conclusions from observation. 

Take physics, for example. Pupils are expected to know the bare minimum about electricity \(literally about three formulae\) in order to pass the electricity section of the exam. The most problem\-solving that is done is rearrangement of a formula. True understanding is not really needed, as the student who remembers the formulae and the students who remembers the formulae and understands the material will have scores that both put them on the same level of "problem solving and understanding", despite only one of the two truly understanding as a result. Students are thus dissuaded from "trying too hard", because the exam only demands so much from an individual and further knowledge is neither a necessity nor rewarded. Thus, being "good enough" is good enough, as far as the child sees.

Essentially, there needs to be some reformation of the exam system, or it must be dissolved altogether. It squanders a child's development into an independent adult and sets up mental barriers and unrealistic expectations for the future, where the skills gained from exams are either not needed or fall short in light of much more important skills they could have gained, such as social skills and pursuit of individual interests.

EDIT: Having read all your replies (which I must thank everyone for) and gotten a good night's sleep, my perspective has shifted. It's evident that exams have stuck around for so long for a reason, not just because we don't have anything better. It's also important that there is some sort of standardised testing, given the large variety in students across the country. 

However, I still believe that the structure of exams is flawed and definitely could use improvement, gravitating towards open-book exams where appropriate, and perhaps downscaling the volume of knowledge required per exam. Following a coursework structure could also be a step in the right direction.

Nevertheless, consider my view changed.
gpt
Allow me to challenge you: How can you know if a student is proficient or they need additional practice in an area, if not for an exam?  How can you compare students' performance for merit-based scholarships, if not for exams?  How can you compare students from different classes, different schools, or different states in college applications if not for a standardized exam?