Your professor is teaching a class on education policy. Write a post responding to the professor's question. Express and support your opinion and contribute to the discussion in your own words. An effective response has at least 100 words.
Dr. Elena Marchetti
Many universities are moving to open-book examinations, in which students may consult any material they wish during the exam. Supporters say this measures understanding rather than memory and better reflects professional practice. Critics reply that it advantages students who can read quickly, that it makes questions much harder to write well, and that some memorised knowledge is genuinely necessary. Should universities adopt open-book examinations? Why?
Nadia
I am in favour. Nobody in any profession is asked to work from memory with no access to references, and an examination that forbids it is testing a skill nobody needs. If a question can be answered by looking something up, then the question was measuring recall rather than understanding, and it should have been a better question.
Kwame
That last sentence proves too much. Writing questions that cannot be answered by looking things up is genuinely hard, and most departments do not have the time to do it well. In practice open-book papers often end up rewarding whoever can search their notes fastest, which is not the skill anyone claims to be assessing either.