I have been reading for some time in another place that graduates from accredited bachelor and master programs had many courses where the only exams were open book. Some have even claimed that some of their courses only had one open book exam for the entire course. My experience from the accredited schools that I have attended have been each course had assignments, quizzes and exams. I completely realize that this is not normal, but I have to wonder if it is even true. So my question is: Is there anyone here that experienced either of these in an accredited college or university?
I have had a course that had assignments and open book exams. I also have had a course that had just two exams and no assignments but they were closed book.
I think they are common in college, but I rarely wanted them because they are almost always five times harder. I've had a few open book tests and I hated most of them . BTW both the schools I graduated from are 100% accredited and, dare I say, well respected .
In almost all open book exams, the book is of little help. In my experience, they are usually essay response and designed to test higher levels of cognition (i.e. critical analysis, synthesis of theory, original design concepts, etc.). Those are things that you typically can’t just look up. Although, as an undergrad, I remember having a few “open-bookish” exams in physics where the professor would let you take in a single note-card with whatever equations you’d could manage to squeeze onto it. That is when I perfected the art of writing really small… a handy skill even today. Cheers, and have a great weekend. Tony Maranto
I have had open book exams and quizzes along with other assignments and exams, but I think I may not have been clear on what I am asking. Has anyone had courses that were only open book exams with no other assignments or exams? Or, has anyone had courses that were only one open book exam for the entire course? If so what courses and what schools.
I had a open book test/exam...that @$#%$^*% proff suckered us in! He asked if anyone wanted an open book test, we did not say yes but hell yes! Then he socked it to us! Whewwww, it had more twists and turns than a monkey could do on a half-a-mile of grape vine! -Gavin
Even worse than the open-book exam were the "take home" exams I had in a few of my law school classes. I'd stay up half the night writing the damn things then stay awake the rest of the night worrying about them!
Open Book I had an open book exam at the University of waterloo, Ontario It was a modern philosophy course. I found that there was no time to look at the book for any other reason than checking the spelling of the names of some European philosephers. Roy Maybery
As mentioned already, open-book exams are rarely a bargain. My graduate Statistics course had an open-book exam, and all the book did was confuse me. I copied the formulas I needed onto some scratch paper, then put away the book.
My first course in college--microeconomics at the University of Nevada--had all open book exams. I was lulled into a false sense of security, walked into the class with a cocky air about me (I'd aced my senior year in high school) and promptly was humbled. It was as if the prof had inadvertently switched a graduate-level exam with the dummy econ class that I thought I was taking. The result? A smooth 44% on my first college exam. The punch line? My grade ended up being a B for the test--thankfully, he graded on a curve. Open book exams are no bargain by a country mile, sometimes they are patently unfair.
I have to concur, most of the opened-book exams I have taken, whether in undergraduate, graduate, or post-gradute schools, accredited and unaccredited, were more difficult than the closed-book exams. The most difficult exams I have ever taken were verbal and blue book essay.
Jimmy: Ditto on the oral exams being difficult. One of the most nerve racking exams I've taken was a makeup in undergrad, the prof made all makeups oral, decided right there I wasn't about to miss another test in his class! Awesome quote there--interesting that such would come from one of the bleakest books of the Hebrew scriptures.
I had one open book exam in an RA school that offerd an on television based class. The day we went to orientation, we were given the mid-term and final. Each had six questions and we were told it had to be turned in by certain dates. We could get the answers from the videos that were played on the colleges TV channel or from any other source (books, internet, etc.). I finished the course in about eight hours. Those three credits in American Gov were about as easy as the CLEP's that I had to study for.
My online program at the University of Wyoming has pretty much exclusively online, open-book, open-note exams. Usually, online exams have an agressive time limit that ensures you won't just take the exam and look up the answers in the book or in the class lecture notes. I did have a class recently that had no time-limit open-book "quizzes", but they were so hard that I scored 100% on less than half of them, and I was one of the top students in the class. Open Book != Easy Even my brick-and-mortar classes at NC State had mostly open-book exams. That didn't mean they were easy - I did manage to get kicked out, after all.
Open book and take home were the general rule at my RA undergrad, tho many courses had term papers as well. There were a few open/take exam-only courses as you asked, Scott; the profs who used that setup were sadists (one quite literally) and everybody hated the format. For older learners such as the aging Carpathian, when memory and other bodily functions just ain't what they was, I see nothing wrong with open-book stuff in place of a brute focus on massive memorization--provided there is also a substantial interpretive or critical thought component in which the learner is thrown back on his own analytical devices and cannot simply "look stuff up."
It’s amazing at the horrors that lie dormant inside one’s mind… Within seconds of reading “Blue Book”, I broke out into a cold sweat. Burrrr, Tony Maranto
