Well right now I am sitting supervising my eCommerce & eGovernment class while they sit their final exam. In most cases I would not have to do this myself but since I did not book via an examination hall I had to resolve the problem myself.
The actual examination is three short essay type questions to be answered in 3 hours. In addition to this the students are given four questions and they get to choose the three they want to answer. They have all been sitting working intensely for two hours and the early leavers are beginning to drop off.
I am not a big fan of the written exam as a form of examination. Mostly because all the exams I have sat for have only had the impact of me studying and cramming up until the last moment and then promptly forgetting everything within weeks from the exam.
So in some cases essays are a good solution. They allow the student to dig much deeper into a specific topic and develop necessary research and writing skills. The problem with the essay, however, is that the students tend to read less of the course material and focus on their chosen topic.
Naturally there are several different kinds of examination but they all either allow in-depth studies of smaller parts of the material or require the students to cram everything into their brains for a short intense burst of regurgitation.
So what to do? Not a lot. I keep tampering with my courses in order to find a good balance between forms of teaching and examination but no matter what is done there is always something to be gained and something else will be lost.