Nowadays the examination is used as a chief means of deciding whether a student succeeds or fails in mastering a particular subject in most colleges and universities. Although it is efficient, its side effects are also enormous.On the one hand, examinations lower the standards of teaching. Since teachers are often judged by examination results, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. No subjects can be taught successfully merely through being approached with intent to take examinations. On the other hand, the most undesirable effect is that examinations encourage bad study habits. As the examinations score is the only criterion(尺度、准绳) for his academic performance, a students is driven to memorize mechanically(机械地) rather than to think creatively.In fact, few of us admit that examinations can contribute anything really important to the students’ academic development. If that is the case, why cannot we make a change and devise something more efficient and reliable than examinations?