The argument raised in this article stems from the analytical distinction between summative and formative assessment. While summative assessment demarks a measurable fixation of the student’s knowledge level at a given point in time, formative assessment instead aims to propel the learning process. Formative assessment becomes particularly manifested in the educational moment of supervised essay writing. Continuous and flexible feedback is vital to the art of supervising. This practice of formative assessment is, in turn, key to the student’s possibilities for deep learning. A fruitful formula for formative assessment and deep learning is to establish a horizontal relationship between supervisor and student, what Olga Dysthe has called the partnership model. This partnership relation is, as argued in this article, endangered by the examination practice’s constant insertion of verticality into the student-teacher relationship. By limiting relational horizontality, the examination locks the pedagogical potential that is naturally embedded in the relational process of essay writing.