Essays:
By Evan Atchison
It’s 9:05 a.m. on a Wednesday. For the past two days you’ve been studying, stressing, and overthinking about your math exam. Your Celsius — to compensate for only five hours of sleep — is working overtime, and you feel 95% confident about passing your exam. After pledging your honor, you open the test booklet and are immediately confused on question one; your professor tricked you. This content wasn’t supposed to be covered on the exam. Sounds pretty miserable, right?
Luckily, I’d like to present you with an alternative examination method, one that doesn’t trick you and is almost entirely within your control: an essay.
I’m aware that essays — and writing, in general — is not for everybody. That’s okay, and I understand why this deters people from liking essays. Compared to an exam, essays seem like a saving grace.
We, as students, often lack control over our academic obligations. Sure, we choose when and how to study, what classes to take — although those who have experienced registration nightmares will disagree — and we can pursue opportunities that we find intellectually stimulating. However, we have almost no control over what our professors assign, what is expected of us, and how a professor chooses to examine us.
Essays give you control. Aside from loose guidelines and word counts, the writer is given complete freedom. Words are powerful, and conveying them effectively is often a better indication of one’s understanding of material than an exam. Exams can often trick you, seldom do essays prove deceitful. As long as you understand the guidelines, you can choose the structure, content, and style of an essay. This provides security as you know exactly what to do. You are in control.
Some people prefer putting the fate of an examination in others’ hands, but for those who prefer the maximum amount of control, and the ability to show off their creativity, the answer is simple: essays are better than exams.
Exams:
By Jacob Rozell
Dear reader, puzzle me this — only because it’s a hypothetical question: would you rather be slapped in the face once, or lick a battery for 45 seconds? What’s on the table here is a moment of pain in brevity or prolonged suffering. A one-time fee, versus a pay-by-the-hour service. I think you’ll agree with me that the first option is always better. Why, then, would anyone prefer an essay over an exam? You, like me, are a good student. Maybe we’re not Will Hunting every hour of the week, but you go to class, study, do the agonizing group work, sit in awkward St. Olaf silence — and we’ve come out quite alright. So, why would anyone ever prolong their suffering by spending hours on an essay? Just get it over with. Take an exam.
Consider the multiple choice exam; on the page, a 100% mark is sitting in front of you. It’s subjective; You can use a variety of tools, and you can carry a mental Swiss Army knife of tricks, methods, and philosophies. Now, consider the essay; The 100 percent mark is not sitting in front of you — You have to conjure it. Create it from an empty page, and worse yet, you don’t have the final say in what’s considered an A-grade essay — your professor does. Your modge podge collection of facts that you agonized over for hours is out of your hands. The 45-minute exam might hurt you, but it’s not a matter of interpretation. There’s a path, and if you’re a good student, you’re probably already walking it. Save yourself some time, take the exam, then get back to the things that really matter, like fly fishing, or reading the Sports section of The Olaf Messenger.
