Impact on learning strategies.

One of the most important reasons for using open-book tests is that they have a tremendous impact on promoting the right mental sets in both learning and teaching. The most immediate result on students is that they stop learning to learn. Most understudies consider "examining" as mechanical remembrance of data in course books and class notes for tests. Open book tests affect this fundamental behavior change. If you can consult textbooks in exam rooms, why bother memorizing them?

What does this mean that students don't need to "study" for exams? No. This suggests that studying should not be equated with memorization; Rather, to practice knowledge concepts and skills that modify and construct knowledge, think conceptually, and use these concepts (with available information) in solving problems. In acquiring the right study strategies, nothing is as effective as the shocking realization that an exam is of no use. Given open book tests, there won't be many tears. Once the burden of mugging is removed, education can become a pleasurable activity, not an excruciating pain. Learned happily, learned more efficiently, better.

Impact on teaching strategy

The implications of open-book tests on teaching strategies are equally profound. First, the format of exam questions varies. Saying "Write the word X", "Define the word Z", and "Explain the word Z", need to be carefully and intelligently designed to test students' understanding and skills. If the nature of test questions that apply that understanding changes, so will the strategies for preparing to take those tests. No more explanation or simplification of textbooks in the classroom. Teachers should design tasks that provide exercises for the appropriate mental skills required in each subject. Instead of the teacher talking all the time and students taking notes, classes have discussions, questions, and other active processes. In other words, it no longer comes down to the transfer of information from the instructor to the students: it is the training of the mind in certain intellectual skills.

Thus, open-book tests can restore the true meaning of the word education to teachers and students. The facts really confirm that it requires investment and exertion concerning understudies and instructors to adjust to the requests of open-book tests. But changes are inevitable. When combined with a teaching approach that focuses on thinking skills, they make education an exciting and enjoyable intellectual adventure, beginning a lifelong quest for knowledge.