The Positives and Negatives of Open Note ExamsNicole Bracci & Lynsey Mickolas

Student Attitudes

Instructor Attitudes

How To Succeed

Our Experience

Many professors believe that open book examinations are a much better form of testing. In the eyes of these professors, open book exams test students at higher thinking levels, instead of just testing only on what they can memorize (Rakes). The questions on open book exams are much deeper and more open ended in an attempt to make the students think about real world situations, not just a regurgitation of a definition. Open book exams allow for students to use multiple references, from different parts of their notes, text, etc., to gather various information to answer each test question. Professors believe that open book exams help students better organize and apply all information learned throughout a class (Rakes). Professors also belief that open book exams will limit the amount of cheating that goes on during the exam. With all relative information present at the student’s desk, there is no temptation to look at another student’s paper for the answer, since every person has the answer right next to him or her. This allows for a positive environment that encourages integrity.

The only downfall to open book exams, according to some professors, is that they require challenging and thoughtful questions (Heijne-Penninga). Professors have to come up with open ended questions that test the students on a variety of skills instead of just coming up with a few definition type questions. This takes time and requires careful thinking and planning to prepare the best exam.

There are countless types of exams a student could receive. From multiple choice and true/false to short answer and fill in the blank, every instructor writes a test of a similar format a different way. Two true false questions asking about the same exact topic will be structured according to each professor’s own style of teaching. Many professors are trying to be innovative in their teaching methods and therefore employing open book exams. Open book exams may make their popularity factor increase but it has been shown that students do not take them as seriously. Even after taking the first exam in a course students did not alter their study skills for future exams when the exams remained open book (Block). However, once the next semester of students entered the course, they heeded the warning of not only the instructors but of past students that studying is necessary in order to succeed on an open note exam. This explains the marginal improvement shown on the table below from Spring 2007 to Fall 2007.

The most successful form of testing was found to be a closed book exam with a note card as a student formulated cheat sheet (Block). These cheat sheets have a way of increasing student learning while concurrently reducing testing anxiety (Erbe). Testing anxiety is a plague upon all students. There is no go to cure for it because every student is different. I have personally witnessed that the more a student feels comfortable with the format of the test the less anxiety one has. A cheat sheet is a student made study aid that is commonly restricted in size by the instructor. However, students should not just photo copy the textbook because that defeats the purpose of the tool (Erbe). Students are encourage to put information on the study aid that they do not understand or have trouble remembering. The trick is, by putting it carefully on to your “cheat sheet” you are learning the material. Erbe states that this method works great for students who take test preparation seriously. As a side note, by allowing some form of a cheat sheet in to the testing environment it reduced the need for unethical behavior during a test.

Different Types Of Exams

Data From: Block, R. (2012). A Discussion of the Effect of Open-book and Closed-book Exams on Student Achievement in an Introductory Statistics Course.

Semester Number Of Students Mean ( out of 250) Type of Exam

Fall 2006 271 189.915 Closed Book

Spring 2007 248 183.173 Open Book

Fall 2007 263 191.357 Open Book

Spring 2008 208 197.654 Close Book W/ Note Card

There are many different ways to approach an open note exam but most importantly a student should approach it as if it were any other closed book exam. If the exam is completely open book, students tend to use their notes as a crutch to get through the entire exam. However, that is neither time efficient nor beneficial for the student. Students still need to study seriously for open note exams, because the best case scenario is that it was an easy exam and you never crack open your notes. On the other hand, the exam could be very involved and require deep thought processes that go above and beyond the nature of your notes and/or text book. An exam of this difficulty is only open note in order to trigger your memory or to get your train of thought going. After that it is up to the student to make the deep connection between topics.

Another way to go about an open note exam is to only allow yourself to use your notes for the last half or quarter of the exam time. This will prevent you from using your notes as a crutch but more as an impromptu resource. Professors are very strategic about their exams, every question is formulated to make the student think a specific way. The only way to succeed is to study for the exam as if it were any other exam, otherwise you never truly learn the material. Many times open book exams are in introductory courses. If you do not learn the material while you are in the introductory course, when you reach an upper level course you will be unprepared for the rapid and intense nature of the course.

However, according to students, open book exams do not meet professor’s expectations. Students say they did not study as much as they should have, since they were going to have all relative information handy when taking the test (Koutselini). They did not spend enough time preparing for the exam, and therefore did not score as well as they could have. Some students believed that they did really well on the exam, until they receive their poor grade. Open book exams boost the confidence of student’s because they believe that since they potentially have all necessary information with them, that they will find the answer and get a good grade (Koutselini). However, open book exams limit the amount of time that students spend thinking about the answer to each question and increase the amount of time students spend looking for the answer. Most students say that open book exams limit the amount of stress and anxiety they possess before taking the test, since an open book exam limits the amount of cramming for memorization type questions (Feldhusen).

Our experiences have directly aligned with the research we have found. In the moment we found open note exams to be a blessing because it relieved much of the stress from studying. We found ourselves stuck in a cycle of relief and regret. This is because we felt the anxiety and pressure relieved because we lucked out and had an open note exams, but then regretful because we never learned anything.

We have both had the opportunity to take many types of open note exams. We agree that the best kind of open note exams is the type where a cheat sheet is allowed. This style of exam forces you to study by making the cheat sheet. In the end, we both found that we never even glanced to look over at our note card. We put so much time in to making it, that we ended up learning the material in the process.

Another difficulty we have encountered is that due to the nature of an open note exam, your diligence in studying is dramatically decreased. Our experience with open note exams were in 100 or 200 level classes. Now entering the 400 level we feel extremely behind. We realized that we never really learned the information from the pervious classes and that we are currently having to play catch up. We find ourselves spending our time struggling to learn the basic material but in reality most other students are building upon their previous knowledge to learn the complex material in the upper level courses. At the moment an open note exam was a blessing but looking back we would have been better off taking a normal, closed book exam.

References1. Block, R. (2012). A Discussion of the Effect of Open-book and Closed-book Exams on Student Achievement in an Introductory Statistics Course. PRIMUS, 228-238. Retrieved April 6, 2015.2. Erbe, B. (2007). Reducing Test Anxiety While Increasing Learning: The Cheat Sheet. College Teaching, 96-98. Retrieved April 6, 2015.3. Feldhusen, J. (1961). An Evaluation of College Students' Reactions to Open Book Exams. Educational and Psychological Measurment, 21(3).4. Heijne-Penninga, M., Kuks, J., Schönrock-Adema, J., Snijders, T., & Cohen-Schotanus, J. (2006). Open-book Tests to Complement Assessment-programmes: Analysis of Open and Closed-book Tests. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 263-273.5. Krarup, N., Naeraa, N., & Olsen, C. (1974). Open-book Tests In A University Course. Higher Education, 157-164.6. Rakes, G. (2008). Open Book Testing in Online Learning Environments. Journal of Interative Online Learning, 7(1). 7. Theophilides, C., & Koutselini, M. (2000). Study Behavior in the Closed-Book and the Open-Book Examination: A

Comparative Analysis. Educational Research and Evaluation, 6(4), 379-393.