Open book degree exams

[KathySeldon]

Been to a Uni open day today, and was shocked to find out that the degree course - psychology - is assessed by a series of open book exams done on a computer.

Am I just out of date? Is this how degrees are now? No formal paper exams in a hall??
Do all universities do this?
I would say the Uni we were visiting is a lower tariff uni if that makes any difference.
Does this form of assessment devalue the degree??
I'm suddenly really confused. I thought all degrees were assessed the same way.

Should dd avoid such a degree?? Is it ok to do a degree like this??

In real life you don't have to remember equations, formulae, citations, etc. They are all easily available. Open book exams better reflect the real world, not just the ability to remember things. Also, while the information may be available, you still have to know how to use it, assess what's important, what is relevant etc. You still need to be able to make an argument and defend your position. I don't have an issue with open-book exams. Remembering a book isn't important, it's understanding what it means.

The Psychology programme at the Uni I work at doesn't have any exams at all, open book or traditional.

Some of our courses have traditional exams in an exam hall but not many, since the pandemic changed things they just haven't all gone back to how they used to be.

@NoodleNuts Are you able to say which uni you work for?
DD is autistic and doesn't cope well with formal exams.

I already have a degree, but my accounting course now is assessed by open book exams. It doesn’t really help. The time pressure is huge, and the questions are more about applying knowledge, so reading a textbook during the exam won’t give the right answer. All the questions are worded slightly different too, so the books only really give definitions or a checklist of what steps to take in your answer.
I still prefer them though.

We had some seen exams when in uni, but most weren’t. I don’t think there’s a massive problem with it, as in the real world no-one is expected to remember everything and never refer to books / internet etc

I did a law degree at a good university. Mostly it was traditional exams but some of my honours courses were open book. Of course, in my real life as a lawyer I never have to answer a new or difficult question purely from memory! I think open book exams make a lot more sense - it doesn’t mean you don’t have to study!

OBAs (open book assessmemts) are quite common tbh. Depends on discipline to some extent but pretty standard.

I'm suddenly really confused. I thought all degrees were assessed the same way.

People often think this, because schools (mostly) follow the national curriculum and do exams set by a very small number of exam boards. But, no, universities have never had to assess exams in the same way. I can't count how many times I've seen threads on here with posters confidently insisting the rules at their specific university must be universal, but it's utter nonsense.

I think an open book exam sounds perfectly standard and fine; it's just going to result in a different set of expectations regarding answers. Some universities have gone over to assessing entirely by coursework, too. There's no right and wrong here.

COVID forced unis into open book as exams had to be taken at home. Many of those restrictions are still in place because unis are on high alert for more waves of COVID closing things down again, and also student numbers have gone up to accommodate COVID deferrals which means it's harder to find physical room for closed book exams in a hall.

My exams at uni 12 years ago were open book and taken on a computer. However, it meant you could take in your notes, not text books and not use Google.

To me it made sense, it's how things would work in real life. It was also a huge incentive to turn up to lectures, because you were so dependent on your notes.

The uni where I worked did this as a covid measure. We're back to normal closed book exams now but a lot of lecturers have swapped to assignments anyway.

Just make sure the degree is BPS accredited, but sounds very normal to only have open book.

Open book exams are more aligned with how you’ll apply knowledge in the real world.

they’re usually application-based rather than fact-regurgitation and so require a deeper understanding of the subject material

Golly ok.

I have always been under the impression that a degree was an academic qualification, and therefore assessed via formal exams.
I feel very out of touch now.

A degree is an academic qualification but that doesn't nec mean exams :)

I've sat open book exams and find them much harder.
Because you have the formulae/standard etc with you the questions are all about application.
It's still a memory game and also an organisation challenge, you need to know exactly where in a book a piece of information is so you can access it in seconds because of the time pressure.
I think the degrees where the vast majority of the marks are attendence/participation and continuous assessment are probably much more reflective of the working world.

Why do you think these aren't formal exams?

Don't worry about being out of touch - it is really hard figuring out how university works, especially if you didn't go yourself, because it's surprisingly different from school. But don't jump to assuming that, just because the exams don't look like what you remember from school, they are therefore not academic or not as rigorous. It doesn't work like that.

When you have to answer questions under exam conditions and to a strict timescale eg 1 hour or 9 mins, it's just as difficult as a closed book exam in my experience. You don't have time to waste flicking through a book or file of your notes. You have to know the subject inside out, and any materials you take into the exam can only ever be memory joggers, in case your mind goes completely blank.

you may also be given restrictions such as you can only bring certain materials in with you, not 4 books, a folder of notes plus plus plus, You also won't get access to the internet so you can't Google anything and you won't have time anyway. I've found that I needed to study and prepare more for an open book exam.

I already have a degree, but my accounting course now is assessed by open book exams. It doesn’t really help. The time pressure is huge, and the questions are more about applying knowledge, so reading a textbook during the exam won’t give the right answer.

^^This. The way the exam is set and how much is expected in the time takes into account the open book nature. I have done an open book exam for health statistics, and I even had 25% extra time due to disability, and it was really tough. I'd prepared for ages beforehand, labelled relevant bits with post-it tabs and a couple of short pages of notes, but you had to know exactly what you were looking up and why, to get a benefit, and there was only time to do this once or twice. (I'm good at maths and passed well but many said it was the hardest exam they've ever done, in both the +25% room and main hall and I can totally understand why.)

Open book exams test understanding rather than just pure memory. I think there is a place for both.

@SarahAndQuack beautiful 👌

Many years ago I went to Oxford - finals held over 4 days decided the entire degree - obviously no open book exams.

Have recently completed a degree (lower tariff uni) where the classification was decided from (a lot of) work submitted over 2 years. Coursework was the most common means of assessment, but also had closed book and open book exams & vivas. I found open book hard because you end up trying to write a coursework standard piece of work, but don’t have the time.

I think the lower tariff uni approach provided a
much more accurate representation of someone’s ability. I personally found it really stressful because I couldn’t spend my second year doing fuck all or sat in the pub (Oxford experience). The coursework/open book approach really isn’t easier and I think it leads to students working harder. In fact at the end of my degree my feedback to the uni was that they needed to replace some coursework with exams to reduce the workload.

My first degree had most of its assessment via closed book traditional exams. They were too much of a memory test and good grades were skewed to those people who had better memories, or quite good ones and worked extremely hard to get things to stick. If you didn't, it was very tough indeed and not a measure of your ability in the subject and whether you could apply it in the real world (or do much in the real world). And I say this as one of the former group (very good memory and naturally performed well in exams without much anxiety - well, in my youth not now!!), not because I'm bitter about getting lower grades as I did not.

I'm doing Psychology with the OU, only had one exam which wasn't open book but was a partially seen exam.

OK.

So just to explain where I'm coming from, dh and I both did performance diplomas at music college, and dc1 is at Oxford doing science/maths stuff. All quite different experiences to the usual uni degree dd wants to do. Despite being pretty clever, sit down, long exams are not her forte.