ABSTRACT
Assessment of student learning is a fundamental function of higher education. Many lecturers report that they spend much more time marking students' work and designing feedback for students than they spend preparing lectures or working with students directly. Many institutions are now adopting a programme-focused assessment approach as part of their strategies to modernise assessment and make it more possible to develop students' assessment literacy to match the emerging pattern of assessment processes and instruments in higher education. So, if we are to use them, we need to consider how we use traditional examination slots to make them manageable and useful for students and staff, both by getting candidates to do different things in such slots and using significantly different forms of exams altogether. Used judiciously and skillfully, exemplars have the potential to act as powerful learning tools, helping students gain insight into the nature of quality and standards, ideally through close analysis and discussion.
