Time's up - put your pens down.

There's a suggestion that schools are using the rule which allows them to extend the exam time for those with problems like dyslexia, to give extra time to other pupils for whom it is not appropriate. For myself, I have never understood why there is any time limit placed on exams at all - after all, the purpose of the exercise is to find out how much you know - not how fast you can write. I have a problem where my hand tends to cramp up after a lot of writing, and I well remember that when I took my exams my main concern was not that I wouldn't be able to answer the questions, but rather that I wouldn't be able to get everything I wanted to say down on paper in the time allotted. It's not as though real life puts you under those sorts of time constraints, so what's the point?