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Am I just out of date?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??

Just finished law degree then masters at an rg. Exams over the 3 years all 24 hour open book. I thibk they will go back to being 4 hours but stlll online and open book.

Think of the advantages for marking -all typed scripts that are legible!

24 hours was knackering though -they said do it in normal 3 but most people worked through the night. I would have spent 15 hours I reckon. Much time spent trying to reduce words down to the word limit to be fair!

Agree with others that it’s all about application. I did an allied health degree where we were assessed with majority open book exams and no amount of googling could diagnose a simulated client or tell me what intervention they would need. Fact regurgitation is a fairly useless way to assess application of knowledge.

Don’t think open book exams are easier. They can be really hard! You’re expected to apply what you’ve learned to interpret and solve problems- much harder than regurgitating facts.

Exactly this!

Does it matter which uni your degree comes from? Is it ok to look at the course modules, then look for unis by the coast (dd wants to be by the sea), then visit and meet the staff?
Are we doing this right?

DD is in her final year at a RG Uni and has been entirely assessed by essay or timed essay (given a title and 48 hours to submit). At first I assumed it was because of Covid and not being allowed to have all students in an exam hall but it seems there will be no proper finals either.

It depends what your DD wants to study.
There are some degrees which have a better perception then others but it is not automatically "top" uni is best.
It can be more related to a specific course.
So your DD should do her best to research which courses have the best reputation in her desired field, then narrow them down to near the sea and which look most interesting to her.
Best of luck to her, it's an exciting time.

It does matter where you study if the career is competitive . yes . It doesn’t matter if the degree leads to a standard qualification that’s a credited by an exterior agency like NHS for instance - no one will care where you qualified .
for a standard Bachelors to really open doors though the networking is important which is why it’s worth comparing a few .
Your DD sounds a lot like me , I loved the coast so wanted to study at a seaside uni .
fact is though May - October when the weathers okay to enjoy the beach uni is off anyway so she could study in London but take a summer job in Plymouth or wherever ?

In the UK a lot of professional degrees have some exams that are open book - they aren’t easier. If anything they can be a lot tougher and a single question may make you cover concepts across the course. They do this to test comprehension skills because many overseas students come from countries where facts are memorised by rote & they can memorise but not apply what they learned - this is well known in India (it’s why many Indian IT / Medical / Pharmacy professionals end up in management because they can’t learn new technical skills).

Definitely look at course modules. I'd also see if you can find information on graduate jobs that students get.Universities will often make this information accessible, but they all dress it up massively so you need to hack through the bullshit, but if you compare one with another, you soon get a sense of what actually sounds good. You can also look at rankings, eg. in the Times or the Guardian. These rankings will vary and you need to take them with a big pinch of salt, but they can help you get a bit of a sense of things.

Have you/ your DD been on The Student Room? That can be useful too.