I have noticed that the ‘Test Prep’ section of the forums gets very little attention relative to the others and I have been wondering why this is.

Maybe, the site is not particularly focussed on exams. There have been posts elsewhere suggesting University education is becoming outdated, but is it really the whole exam/test based system that needs re-thinking?

Personally I find exams a great motivator, for me when I am studying, and also for my students.

What do you think? Why is this section so seldom used? Are exams / tests important in education?

of course they are

I think lots of people on here are not studying towards exams. That could be why it’s so quiet.

Like you, I find that exams motivate me to study. I decided to do a Spanish GCSE a couple of years ago and I spent more time studying and learnt so much more than I do most of the time when I’m just learning it casually.

I guess also, that many people who are doing exams are doing them in school so they might not think of looking for help online. I think that is a shame because a little extra individual attention can work wonders in terms of confidence and results and it needn’t be very expensive here.