Preparing for Open Book Exams
Open book exams require you to:
- learn for understanding rather than just remembering
- understand how to find information
- make good notes and organise materials for fast reference
- apply the information in your sources to the questions
Study
You need to study for Open Book exams just as you would for any exam. If you know your subject, you'll have a knowledge base to draw on. You will also understand how and why topics are linked. This style of learning equips you well for exams and 'real life' experiences. If you don't study you won't know how to find answers and–books or no books–you can't answer the questions.
Familiarise yourself with texts and notes, and make sure you can locate important information. Be familiar with your materials so you will not waste valuable exam time searching through them. Prepare your environment
Plan ahead
Work out the materials and resources you will take into the exam room.
Don't overload with materials. Only take what you need into an Open Book exam. Carefully select your materials and resources and organise them for quick reference. The same goes for writing implements. Make sure you have spare pens, pencils and erasers. If you need any other tools, make sure they all work and pack them neatly. For those using non-solar calculators, don't forget spare batteries!
If you are doing a Take Home exam, gather readings, notes and resources together beforehand and organise them neatly in your study area at home. Make sure you have enough paper, pens etc. Set up a quiet space where you can concentrate, and where you can work without interruptions.
Find out the exam requirements
For Open Book exams, find out:
- the materials you can take into the exam room
- how much time you have
- the topic areas the exam will cover
- how long answers should be
- if you need to reference
- the types of questions–essays, short answers etc.
For Take Home exams, find out:
- the time and date the exam should be handed in
- where the exam should be handed in
- how much time you have to complete the exam
- the topic areas the exam will cover
- how long answers should be
- if you need to reference
- the types of questions–essays, short answers etc.
Don't anticipate questions
When you prepare your notes, don't waste time guessing possible questions or trying to prepare 'model' answers–preprepared answers don't work. Essay style questions will tend toward a 'free' response rather than a fixed 'single right answer' question, so formula answers don't fit. However, you do need to have 'thought through' conceptual frameworks and philosophical positions, and have some general conclusions in mind. You don't need to know everything, but you need to know how to find the relevant information.
Practise
Your lecturer or tutor may provide some sample questions or a dry run. You might also want to check out some past exam papers in the Library.
Get a good night's sleep
On the night before the exam, don't stay up until all hours studying. You'll be fuzzy, stressed and unable to think clearly.
Preparing notes and materials
Organise
A large amount of materials might make you feel secure, but you'll probably work best relying on no more than a few pages of notes and a few well-chosen texts.
Spend some time making your reference materials as user-friendly as possible so that you don't waste time frantically flipping pages back and forth or shuffling papers. Unless you're sitting a Take Home exam, you'll need to work within a short time limit (a few hours). To do this well, try to have the essential facts, formulae, etc. at your finger tips. Also, writing a flow chart to show how the relevant topics are connected is very helpful.
Preparing resources
Before the exam
- Use tables of contents and index pages to locate relevant sections in the books you plan to use.
- Bookmark useful chapters or pages. Post-it notes can be helpful here.
- Prepare brief summaries, e.g. in margins of texts to provide a quick reference.
- Prepare a list of key information (formulae, key definitions etc.) likely to be used.
- Use index cards to list key topics and relevant page numbers of texts. Use one card per book. This can help you find information quickly.
Preparing notes
Make some useful notes for yourself
- Review the subject to get a good overview.
- Work out the main themes and topics.
- Identify key concepts or information.
- Make brief and legible notes.
- Summarise important information.
- Use clear headings.
- Organise notes by topic.
- Identify how topics are connected.
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