SHOULD ELECTIVES BE NON-EXAMINABLE?

Does the graded examination of electives result in a negation of their intended purpose?

Electives are a way to ensure that we obtain a “holistic” or “well-rounded” education. However, the only consideration we have when taking electives is that they should maximise our GPA while minimising our workloads! What is evident is that electives largely fail to achieve the idealistic objectives expected of them.

A while back I was talking to a friend on a similar subject, and he said to me- “I enjoy electives, but not if they are examinable!” On thinking about it, I realised that he’d hit the nail on the head. The reason that electives are not serving the purpose that they should is that the consideration of GPA and workloads overshadows every other consideration on this subject. It is logical to extend this line of thought and wonder whether it would help if the only motivation for taking up electives was to be one’s own interest in the subject matter.

One way to ensure that we take up electives out of interest is to make them non-examinable. Without the stress and pressure of exams, we would be able to enjoy the subject. Perhaps we’d even learn more than what we would by adopting an exam-oriented approach to the subject, thus contributing to a more holistic education.

The glaring problem with the abovementioned scenario is the absence of a quantitative method of assessing the knowledge uptake of the student. While making electives non-examinable removes all other motivations for taking up electives, save an interest in the elective, it also removes the quantitative basis we commonly employ for evaluation. However, a qualitative assessment of the proficiency of students is still possible, which cannot be included in GPA computation. If the intended objective of having electives is to give students a broad perspective and an extensive knowledge base, it should not be necessary to include electives in GPA computation (of course people who tend to perform better in their electives than in their ‘cores’ would disagree!).

While the opinions expressed in this article may seem preposterous, the objective is to ensure that taking up electives does not remain a search for GPA maximisation instead of knowledge gain.