Open Book Examinations

Open book exams allow the examinees to carry books and other reference material related to the subject for the exam.

It may sound easy, but the questions in these types of exams are actually harder than that of closed book exams. In my opinion I am against open book examinations. First of all, it affects the memorizing ability and capacity of a student. Emphasis should be given on memorizing and thinking instead of searching for answers. A professional college student who writes exams by referring books rather than memorizing will in future, find his job very hard. Children spend too much time on finding answers instead of using knowledge, practicing skills and reasoning ability.

This forces the student to skip questions and sacrifice valuable marks. By memorizing, one can easily cruise through the question paper and he knows if he can answer a question or not by simply reading that question. Open book exams urge the students to buy expensive books for referring and it becomes difficult to ensure that all students are equally equipped regarding the books they bring. There also arises a problem of desk space. More desk space is needed for the children to place their reference book and equipment.

By writing open book exams, a student’s brain is not exercised. They forget to add logic to their answers. They quickly scan through the textbook and they write the best answer the can find. Most students have a feeling that they need not study for open book exams since the books are available and they can easily write the answers. But they are terribly wrong. They’ll have to find the answers from that big text and if they can’t, they are very much doomed.

Faults or mistakes like these can affect the marks of a student. Finally, many students are still not familiar with open book exams. They still like the old fashioned closed book exams. So I conclude that closed book exams are way better than open book exams.