An Exam system, like everything else, is a trade-off.
A person's response to such a system tells us more about that person's priorities than the exam system itself.

Clearly, one of the results of examinations is standardization and homogenization.
Is that a pro or con?

You say, "He sounded like Martin Carthy. Cool!" I say, "He sounded like Martin Carthy. Yawn."

When it comes to music, I personally favor that which promotes diversity and feel negatively about that is promotes homogenization.

My purely personal preference is partly a response to a world where the organizations keep getting bigger and the choices keep getting fewer. To me it does not matter that the store is the size of a jumbo-jet hanger and the prices are the lowest in the world if there is no selection and I cannot get the product I actually want.

When something gets academicized and credentialized I think that is a sign it has become severed from its traditional sources. It has taken on a life of its own and become to some extent an artificial construct.

Pro or con?
When it comes to music, I find that I personally do no care much for the results of such a process.

Examinations would make learning folk music like learning classical music.
Pro or con?

I agree that "exams work in classical music." But a goal of classical training is to get everybody playing the same sequence of notes in the same way. When it comes to non-classical music, that's not what I want to hear.


Anglo,
To state the obvious...
In the context of Mudcat OTHER people cannot waste YOUR time.
Any time wasting on Mudcat is about YOU, not the thread creator.

Russ (usually silent GUEST, and with good reason)