It is important to "test" students to know if they are understanding what you are teaching them or if you'll just further leave them in the dust when you move on. The traditional test is really flawed though, and it really only tests someone's ability to be a good test taker. I was always a good test taker with no anxiety, so I always did well on tests.

This is why I preferred doing projects and papers to test for the knowledge of my students. It was more fun, students were more invested in it, and it really told me more about their thinking than what a traditional test would. I had this one assignment I stole/modified from one of my professors that she called the "bajillion ways to do a project" thing. Basically, it gave the student the freedom to do whatever they wanted to show me what they knew really. There were some criteria I put in that they had to meet to get a good grade, but otherwise they could show me their knowledge however they wanted. They could write a story, write a poem, make a video, draw a comic, write a song, etc etc. We then had to present our thing to each other. It also doubled as a good means to see what each of my students were interested in, what their talents were outside of my specific subject area, and it just helped me better understand their thought processes.