Scrap the CCTs

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine a world without CCTs, those grey ominous clouds looming on the horizon of your live. Bliss.
Back to reality. The test paper is in front of you. Every printed word seems unintelligible. You panic, because you know you will flunk the test and there is nothing you can do to escape it. As always, the adults say that CCTs are practice for A-levels. Just like CCTs, nobody can escape them. These hurricanes have started forming since the tempest of PSLE, unstoppable, furious, life-changing, and in a few years they will finally descend.
Sure, CCTs do prepare us for A-levels, but do they prepare us for life? Real life does not comprise of taking test every four weeks to test one’s understanding of a subject, nor is it graded. The truth is, many skills needed in post-university life are not tested in CCTs.
Different kinds of abilities exist, be it physical, intellectual, artistic and so on. CCTs are incapable of reflecting all these types of abilities. Take Einstein for example. He himself did badly for his physics and mathematics tests in high school, but did that mean he did not have the ability to do so? How could the ability of someone who had the intellectual capacity to revolutionise physics not be reflected in a test? How many of these “Einsteins” are we losing because of our current assessment system?
CCTs stifle creativity. Even though subjects like literature allow one to express their own views about a poem, a piece of prose, and so on through essays, has this form of assessment ever been truly creative? Do CCTs ever ask you to write a poem or paint a picture, and through this, grade you?
CCTs also generate huge amounts of stress. There is stress in studying for the CCT, where there is always the possibility of being caught off guard by the essay question. There is stress during the test, when you wrack your brains trying to rush it within the narrow time frame. There is stress after the test, where you have to psychologically deal with the aftermath and the unsettlingly different answers which your friends put on their scripts.
The fundamental question here is do we really need CCTs? Creative assignments or projects are equally capable, if not more capable of reflecting our diverse talents, or effort that we put in. Additionally, this would also test our ability to manage our time effectively to complete a project. These are the skills we would probably be using in employment, for example putting up a proposal for a million-dollar building plan, or managing a construction project.
This is why we should scrap the CCTs, and install creative assignments for grading instead. Creative assignments not only reflect the student’s ability better, but also bear a closer resemblance to the real-life projects which we have to handle during employment. Creative assignments are the solution to revamping our assessment system.
The question is: Are we willing to accept this change?