Rethinking Exams in the Age of GenAI: Overreliance Threatens Readiness and Integrity
Rethinking Exams in the Age of GenAI: Overreliance Threatens Readiness and Integrity

Summary/Abstract: The rising reliance of students on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) generates critical concerns about exam readiness and academic integrity, making it highly necessary to rethink traditional exam related tasks. The study at hand explores these issues opting for reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) of three focus group discussions (FGDs) involving three EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers per focus group. Using NVivo 14 software, the results obtained revealed serious issues regarding the impact of EFL students’ use and dependence on GenAI on their cognitive, affective and academic skills which are essential for successful exam preparedness. Due to these assertions, students’ growing reliance on GenAI presents notable difficulties in preserving exam integrity, causing limitations to traditional written examinations, with teachers struggling to design alternative tasks to ensure fair grading and quality in response to the evolving nature of GenAI tools. Given this, the participants’ level of familiarity with GenAI appears to be a key factor determining the reconsideration of adaptive exam tasks that resist GenAI integration alongside those that embrace GenAI-driven approaches. To conclude, the present study emphasizes the need for professional development programs to equip teachers with strategies for integrating GenAI while maintaining assessment integrity.

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