Exam Scores - an absolute measure for ability?

Exams have a role to play in helping us identify children's strength, but they are just one way of trying to measure ability.That's it. There isn't a single test in this whole world that can absolutely measure the full extent of your child's individual gifts and talents. This is because the point at which the individual skills begin or end cannot be measured. Well, there are of course well-researched tests that are valid and reliable but they are based on statistical averages. However, these cannot change the fact that each child is unique, brilliant and beaming with their own skills. The exams should not aim to find out what your child does or doesn't happen to know. Rather, they should be more geared to make the child use their independent thinking to find solutions to problems for themselves. By all accounts of genius in history, not all have not sailed through the path of academic exams to reach the position where they are now. On the contrary, they identified their own strengths to make it to the top!