Touted as a more accurate gauge of students' understanding rather than regurgitating what they had rote learnt, open book examinations are becoming more popular.
The tested favour open book examinations believing that it would be less stressful with information accessible should they get stumped. However, having through a few "open book examinations", I know that it is not as "easy" as it sounds. On the contrary, it gives the examination candidate a false sense of security and not making adequate and appropriate preparations.
An open book question rarely asks of the students to 'describe’ or or even ‘explain’. That would be too easy to simply copy the answers from the books. Only at elementary levels would the examiner be interested in knowing if the candidate has good memory of the details. Instead the examiner offering open book examination is interested to know if the candidate could apply theories and rules to problem solving. Your thinking skills are expected to be exhibited to impress upon the marker. The answers may not be straight forward, but are open-ended. Candidates are therefore expected to demonstrate critical analysis in their answers.
Hence, studying in preparation for such "free" form of examinations require a lot more time. You need to know how to navigate through the books under time contraint.
Summarise all the main points of lecture notes substantiated by details from the texts, references and readings. Pay special attention to issues highlighted by the teacher. It may be a tedious process. But hey, there's not gain without any pain.
Drawing up neatly or better still if you could type and print the page index of subject matter and topics with reference to all the text books would be very helpful. More often than not, you would notice many candidates frantically flipping through the book. This will not happen if you had a handy page guide. There won't be enough time for last minute search.
Bringing in many books into the exam hall would only serve as comforter, pacifier, a toy to calm your nerves. They are just materials of last resort when you need to quote details which you have forgotten. You don't have time to start reading through the book for the first or second time in the entire course. That's a no-no. This can cause panic attacks under stressful exam conditions.
A word of caution : open book exam is not the equivalent of open to discussion exam. I feel sorry not responding to neighbouring candidates trying to signal and elicit answers. The only persons candidates could request for help are the teacher and invigilator who may apply stringent regulations on conduct during examinations. Partaking in discussions albeit in an open book exam can result in disqualification and confiscation of exam scripts. Those who don't get caught are lucky but I won't take the risk and push my luck.
As with all examinations, try not to cram in readings till the last minute. Breathing exercises and meditation five minutes before exam commenceswill help to clear your mind and perform better.
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