open book test

[Guest Lynne4]

A friend of mine told me that colleges only do open book tests, is that true? I find it odd that every test is open book. When I was in college I never had an open book test.

[regentrude]

That, as a general statement, is not true.

In our department, none of the professors gives open book tests. From what the students tell me, other departments do not either; an open book test seems to be a rarity.

 

This said: open book tests, if well designed, can be much harder than tests without books. It is deceptive to think that the open book would make the test easier.

[Guest Lynne4]

That, as a general statement, is not true.

In our department, none of the professors gives open book tests. From what the students tell me, other departments do not either; an open book test seems to be a rarity.

 

This said: open book tests, if well designed, can be much harder than tests without books. It is deceptive to think that the open book would make the test easier.

 

Thanks! My friend thinks her kids do not need to learn study skills because all tests are open book. I told her she was crazy!;)

[memphispeg]

A friend of mine told me that colleges only do open book tests, is that true? I find it odd that every test is open book. When I was in college I never had an open book test.

 

My dd is a college sophomore and so far none of her "tests" have been open book. There have been overnight problem sets and essays that are take home and open book but, the thinking involved required knowing everything beforehand so as to be able to develop solutions or arguments.

[EKS]

That, as a general statement, is not true.

In our department, none of the professors gives open book tests. From what the students tell me, other departments do not either; an open book test seems to be a rarity.

 

This said: open book tests, if well designed, can be much harder than tests without books. It is deceptive to think that the open book would make the test easier.

 

I only had one course in college where the tests were open book (open notes actually)--the second quarter of an introductory biochemistry sequence. They were the hardest tests I ever had in college.

[kiana]

When I have had open book tests, they were distinguished from closed book tests in that there were absolutely no problems that could be answered by clever memorization. Every single problem was an application or extension of the homework/textbook examples, and the average grades were far lower. Study skills were STILL necessary as you would need far more practice applying the book's examples to novel problems.

 

On a closed book exam, usually some of the questions are very straightforward and very similar to example problems.

 

Very few of the math classes at my current university have open-book exams. One of my courses gave a take-home exam which took almost the entirety of spring break to complete, and I was still dissatisfied with the results.

 

Your friend is full of crap and her kids are going to be pretty unhappy when they get to university and discover that they haven't been told the truth.

[QueenCat]

Wow! Wonder where your friend got her info. My son is a junior in college. He has had one class where open book tests were the norm. Those tests were very hard. I go to an online college, American Public University. so far, my tests have been open book, and quite hard, for the most part. Professors can require proctored closed book tests but most don't, instead, they use a lot of essay and problem solving style questions.

[TravelingChris]

I also agree with others that open book tests are generally harder. My dd had an open book midterm for her criminology class and it had to be the hardest test I have ever encountered and I have a master's in the subject and did all the coursework for a PhD in it too.

 

In the class I teach at high school level, I give the government tests as closed book and the economic tests as open book but that is because you aren't going to pass the test if you haven't understood the material. The econ tests were harder and most students had worse grades in econ.