As we rounded out the Spring 2021 semester, my best friend, Maya, and I sat in our living room as we studied for our finals. Our studying this semester looked a lot different than how it had looked in our high school classes together. We had been witnessing each other study for 12 years and despite our most accelerated, difficult semesters ever, the energy in the living room was much less stressed and charged.
This was because our exams were to be taken online, in a limited-time window, with access to all of our notes, reading, and study materials. This pivot away from memorization forced us both to hone in on our good note taking skills, reading notes and annotations, and detailed study materials we had created.
Shortly after the pandemic started, and professors started to realize that closed-book and note tests were a waste of instruction because students had remote access to all their resources, I started to realize just how much my notetaking, studying, and reading was curated for memorization. As I started to adapt my work for the building of helpful materials, my whole school experience changed, and I realized that the skills I was practicing in class were now very reflective of the skills I was also practicing in my job at the time.
As we graduate, we are entering a world of endless resources. The internet is at our fingertips, we can calculate any equation, translate any sentence, and find scholarly literature on any topic in a matter of seconds. Our challenges have shifted from managing gaps in information access to paradox of choice, so our schools must also adapt our learning. Test-taking used to be intended for students to practice memorization and pressured regurgitation--which were viable skills in a world where the search for information and evidence took a matter of hours or even weeks. Research has been mobilized and made available for the masses, and while this is sometimes criticized, it actually provides an opportunity for our next generations of students to practice applicable skills instead of waste time memorizing content.
Open-note test-taking helps students practice a variety of skills:
Compiling and prioritizing relevant material and resources they create
Gathering and finding information within restrictive time constraints
Listening for what the instructor finds meaningful over maximizing how much can be written down for memorization: quality over quantity
Practicing skills and learning to solve and understand problems without memorizing formulas or models for the correct answer
Diligently annotating in textbooks
Retaining information after an exam
Bonus: instructors must build exams that test meaning, understanding, and skill application-- not just ask questions that can be found on the internet.
Exams are supposed to be a gauge of an understanding of material, but the traditional test model fails to measure that metric. Students with a high level of understanding of the material but low breadth of memorized material and/or less memorization ability are significantly set back. Inversely, students who do not grasp the material at all but have the ability to memorize the information enough to regurgitate a large portion of it are much better off when grades are released. This distinction does not help build applicable skills to most work environments and favors brainless memorization over understanding and critical thinking, which is a skill that most students don't actively develop until long after grade or even high school. This method also sets students back who have other commitments that may affect their memorization ability such as home responsibilities, a job, sports, or potential issues outside of school.
Open-note, online test-taking is a reflection of innovation and the future, and curriculum must adapt to ensure greater retention, meaning, and skill-building for the future contributors to society.
This topic is so relevant and I completely agree. The practice of rote memorization over the course of my K-12 experience has done nothing but teach me how to temporarily copy and paste test-relevant information into my brain - information which leaves my mind as fast as it entered. Over the pandemic I also saw an increase in my notetaking skills and it was incredibly beneficial to my academic performance. This should absolutely be incorporated into the future of academia!
I really enjoyed this blog post because most people don't discuss this topic much! I do agree that open-note test-taking helps students with a variety of skills that could actually aid them in their future occupations. Even for me when we came back during an all-online semester, I found it very helpful to be able to use my notes that I took time on from earlier classes. Overall, I think this was great to talk about considering most parts of education do not openly discuss this.
I completely agree with you. In the age of increasing digitalization of information, it is incredibly unnecessary to force students to memorize months of history, equations, etc, when it is all easily found on the internet. In my opinion, open notes tests allow for students to stress less about the material, and focus more so on the application of the material, ensuring that whatever job or field they go into, the knowledge of application will stay with them. Furthermore, this allows for students to better retain information because they will know it by application, not by memorization, which is so important.
This is such an interesting topic you explored. I think it is so true that students focusing on memorizing content for tests takes away from the real purpose of school and tests which is actually understanding the information and not just forgetting about it the day after the test is over. Great post.
I agree with your ideas about this, and I think it is a common feeling among students about this. The hyperfocus on memorization in our education system has continued to hurt our already shrinking attention spans and weakens our memory. It also is counterintuitive to our conceptual learning, and encourages cheating tactics which are easy to utilize when the test is placed squarely on memory. This article from an anonymous teacher explores this topic further and is a great read if you'd like to know more about the side effects of encouraging memorizing over conceptual learning-https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/when-memorization-gets-in-the-way-of-learning/279425/.