An open book exam should not be confused with an "easy" exam. The focus in any open book exam is on application. It is not about transferring "facts" from the book to the answer sheet - it is about
- selecting the appropriate facts
- applying the facts to the question at hand.
It follows that depending on the facts you have chosen to apply, other facts are ignored or incorporated as you"weave" you answer. An application question is therefore in many instances also an open-ended question. For example, you decide to select a Fruit and Vegetable shopping cart to answer a question. Not many years ago buying fruit and vegetables over the Internet was a no-no, because people generally preferred to see and feel fruit. Its shipping profile also played a role. Today many people order fruit and veg over the Internet for various reasons? When discussing the reasons why, you necessarily move into a direction that you might not have if you selected another business, or if you did this course 3 years ago. The point is, you need to really think your answer out - very few questions are limited to a section or a chapter. It is therefore difficult to provide "formulaic approaches" or even answers (called grading rubrics), to open-ended questions, other than to say that you should
always define a fact before you apply it. In this sense it is OK to copy out of the textbook for purposes of definition, but it must be concise and introductory to the application thereof.
The marks for a question provides an indication of how much time you should spend on it in relation to other questions. That is, 5 marks does not mean 5 facts (or ticks)! Do not fall into this trap. We evaluate the argument you make.
It is impossible to teach open-ended skills in 3 months. This is a skill that should have been learned at school level. For this reason, we prefer a portfolio approach, where the practical carries equal weight to off-set a theory-only focus. It also fits within the parameters of what an introductory course is, as defined as by the National Qualifications Framework. Our purpose is not to catch you out. But neither is it about just handing certificates out. We do not just write you off after the exams if you struggled - we handle each student on an ad-hoc basis, which means we may decide to give a supplementary, which is access to the next semester's exam (note that this does not apply to students who have not completed their prac or did not write exam). Our intention is to empower you!
Just remember it is not about the quantity, but the quality, of your answer. Also remember to refer to the articles that you were given if you can - we like evidence outside the handbook.
