Open Book Policy in Examinations

As I write about this topic, I am reminded of my school days when History subject was a bête-noire. The night before my history exams, used to be a complete nightmare. Today we have many students getting stressed up at the mere mention of exams. They start panicking a few days before the exams. Students either resort to complete night outs or sleep late before the night, deteriorating their health. Even a few minutes before the exams, many can be seen trying to remember as much as they can. They have a constant fear of forgetting one or the other thing. This is the tragedy of today’s examination system. Open-Book system can change all the above.

Of course, it is very difficult to prepare an exam that truly tests an individual's skill and talents. But the current examination system fails to test anything other than one’s mugging skills. It defines a syllabus that consists of a few chapters and then requires students to mug them up and spit it out as best as they can, on the examination day. It cannot identify whether a person has understood the syllabus or has just vomited everything out of his/her memory.

This system generally creates the impression in students’ mind that they would be called talented only if they are able to learn everything by heart. They get disappointed when they fail to do so and it creates an inferiority complex in them. No one knows beforehand as to what questions might come up in exams and it may so happen that the portions not studied by a person comes in exam and his/her partner who might have studied only that, answers them successfully. So it is more of luck in that case.

Open-Book Policy will remove undue advantage to any candidate and ensure that everyone gets equal chance and opportunities. Everyone will be provided with the same resources and they can actually show their skills and understanding during the tests. If books are allowed during exams, then the questions will be of different types that will test the students’ ability to understand the text, read between the lines and hunt for the answers. When studying, one will have to analyze each and every line thoroughly. One cannot escape just by mugging up things. This will eventually give them a better understanding of the entire syllabus, which will be easier to remember. The reason why one fails to remember things is because they merely try to memorize them.

To prove the effectiveness of Open-Book Policy, let’s consider the real time scenario when one actually gets into a job. At that point of time, one hardly needs to remember precisely all the details of their syllabus that he/she had studied in their school days. So when coming up with a solution for a problem, they are free to refer books, internet, etc. They can get all the information whenever needed. At this point, the skill and effectiveness of an individual is determined according to what he/she does when given all the resources. One can be called talented only if he/she is able to use his/her resources in a smarter and efficient manner. So why should one be asked to memorize everything in his/her lower classes?

Mugging up has another great disadvantage. When students memorize any article, they forget it soon after exams and then they have to learn everything again before next exams. So effectively, at any point of time, they hardly remember anything. So practically, then there is no use of memorizing if one has to forget them immediately after the exams. Open-Book system will make all the students all time prepared for exams and they need not panic immediately before exams.

Students in order to learn everything just try to skim through everything and do not concentrate on one particular chapter or portion. This makes them just very vaguely aware of any one topic. If books are allowed, then they can leave aside all the memorizing stuff and concentrate more on the statements. This will ensure that they also enjoy studying and are able to retain whatever they read and are fully aware of what they have understood.

Open book systems can also minimize copying during exams, because there will be no question of chits and other things. Many students who resort to copying do not study the portions as they feel they can get away with chits. This also discourages other honest students who get poor marks in spite of studying. Sometimes students who do not get sufficient time to prepare (maybe because of fever, marriage or deaths in family, etc.), get low marks. By Open-Book policy, students will be affected to a much lesser extent because of the above incidents.

The one and the only one thing that Open-Book cannot test fully is memory power of students. For that there can be one subject that will only test memory. Perhaps some subjects like Civics and Geography can have the exception of not having Open-Book system. But definitely other subjects should have the system of books during exams.

In conclusion, Open-Book policy will stop the old practice of mere mugging and will replace it by testing analytical skills. It will be able to test the skill and talents thoroughly. It will give more satisfaction to the individual and to others. It will result in the students having a better and complete understanding of the subjects. It will also stop the dread of exams in them and will make them ready for exams anytime with minimum preparations.