Finding old exams online?

How useful are exams in finding out how much someone knows?

• Answer:

  Not much. one day in junior high school, we all studied hard for a 6 weeks exam. the day came for the big test. we sat in class one hour taking the exam. some had sweat running down their cheeks. some chewed the erasers off the pencils and the real flunkies made paper airplanes. The hour ended and we took our finished tests to the teacher. some had smiles on their faces, some were crying and some didn't care. Before we left the class, our teacher made us take a seat. he told us to take out a piece of paper, write our name and date on it and write down a grade that we thought we deserved for this 6 weeks test. he said to be honest and give a truthful grade. This we did and took our papers to the teachers desk. before we left, he made a move than shocked us. before our eyes, he tore up our 6 weeks exam. and gave us the score we had written and signed on a separate piece of paper. We could not figure out his motive, but here it is: "for once in your life, you have been given a break. learn from this and never say that no one ever gave you a break in life". This, i will remember forever and i think this is what he wanted. He was my favorite teacher.