Closed book exams are fucking pointless(especially in College)

[Number-41]

[QUOTE=Jo The Shmo;27433951]Before learning that I honestly had no clue that Missouri wasn't on the gulf coast.
That would have really screwed up my interpretation of the Missouri compromise.

And that's just one example, there are so many other reasons why learning the states is important in a US History class.[/QUOTE]

Of I thought you meant just being able to name all 50, now that would be pretty useless...

[SNNS-SEAN]

[QUOTE=Number-41;27435609]Of I thought you meant just being able to name all 50, now that would be pretty useless...[/QUOTE]

So it's really that hard to name fifty states? You learn that in the fifth grade here, idiot.

[Number-41]

[QUOTE=SNNS-SEAN;27436622]So it's really that hard to name fifty states? You learn that in the fifth grade here, idiot.[/QUOTE]

Hahahaha this guy's serious :v:

[MedicWine]

I don't believe in studying. Isnt the point of a test to test what you know? Not what you can memorize in a day and forget a day later?

[Number-41]

Don't forget you're using an alphabet that you once had to memorize...

Christ what is it with all these angsty kids going "I HAET SCHOOL"

[MedicWine]

Nah. I think of it more as people who are smarter than everyone else bitching about tests.

If someone with F's bitched about tests everyone would tell him to shut up because all dumb people hate tests.

[Magick]

[QUOTE=yawmwen;27423800]Uh trig is an advanced math class. College math is like linear and quadratic equations, and basic log.[/QUOTE]

Then I'm pretty sure you are confusing college with middle school. College math is Calculus AKA derivatives and integrals of those linear and quadratic equations you learned way back in middle/high school.

Also, I said BASIC Trig. Which is taught in high school. Several times. Not in honors/advanced classes.

The ACT is a test for high school students to take. There would be no point to putting college level math on a test taken in high school.

[Upgrade123]

Do away with schools altogether and have children learn everything they need to know off Wikipedia.

Flawless plan.

[carcarcargo]

Due to my attention span in lessons slipping in the last year (which I think may have something to do with social problems I'm having at the moment) I find it nearly impossible to do exams well any more.

[Explosions]

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;27432541]Pretty sure I never mentioned your age and I just explained it. Are you one of those people who constantly gets fighty over being young?[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry, I didn't know you were flame baiting.

[R3mix]

Agreed OP, however retaining knowledge is very important as well, mentioned by ExplodingGuy.

[JohnnyMo]

[QUOTE=Explosions;27441241]I'm sorry, I didn't know you were flame baiting.[/QUOTE]

Do you even know what that is? The fact that I brought up your grade in relation to your experience with actually difficult exams and you got pissy does not mean I made you pissy or tried to.

[sloppy_joes]

[QUOTE=yawmwen;27424297]Language is a skill, not a bunch of memorized facts. If you memorize a language you fucking suck at it, you have to [b]integrate it.[/b][/QUOTE]
∫language d language

Oh god what have I done?

[editline]15th January 2011[/editline]

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;27431465]I take exams all the time where I could have the book open and it wouldn't help me for shit if I don't know what I'm doing.[/QUOTE]

Depends on the course, for math and science courses, you can literally just turn to the page and find the format for finding the answer.
It sort of makes it easier to get marks, as you don't really have to memorize anything.

[JaffaOrange]

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;27442451]
Depends on the course, for math and science courses, you can literally just turn to the page and find the format for finding the answer.
It sort of makes it easier to get marks, as you don't really have to memorize anything.[/QUOTE]

Isn't that why math and science course have a sheet or small booklet of formulas and important values?

[sloppy_joes]

[QUOTE=Jabberwocky;27443052]Isn't that why math and science course have a sheet or small booklet of formulas and important values?[/QUOTE]

Yeah you're sometimes given an aid sheet but you're never given an open book exam.
Ever

[JohnnyMo]

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;27442451]Depends on the course, for math and science courses, you can literally just turn to the page and find the format for finding the answer.
It sort of makes it easier to get marks, as you don't really have to memorize anything.[/QUOTE]

No, not necessarily. The easiest question on my electrodynamics exam last semester (for me anyway) required that you know and apply several equations, one of which was a triple integral you have to know how to set up. The book doesn't just tell you what dl is in all cases. It requires 4srs analysis rather than just finding a form of a solution that fits all cases.

[Tayg0]

Having access to a book during a test would definitely make it easier.

[Zombini]

i see your point. I'm a Why kind of person. If there's no reason to something, then why did it happen/exist? same damn thing applies to life on earth. why the hell we are here? nobody knows, and that bugs the hell out of me. When they force me to memorize something to a test, i ask why, they get pissy and raise hell. and then for the test, the answers usually have me asking why, and i try my damnedest to find out, and it leaves me exhausted at the end of the day.

[Froztshock]

[QUOTE=Upgrade123;27440966]Do away with schools altogether and have children learn everything they need to know off Wikipedia.

Flawless plan.[/QUOTE]

Hah, I image that would do to common knowledge what saving and resaving a .jpg repeatedly does to picture quality.

[Deunan]

All those complaining about closed book exams should go grab nothing but oral ones for a semester or so. It's only then that the fun starts :P Since you don't actually have the time to nicely nest your ideas but have to start more or less well of from the get go.

If you don't the profs tend to get prissy and throw you out. I'd also love to see anyone going trough any notes|books or whatever else during an examination like that.

Obviously it can't be done in all fields.

Also Quadratic equations college level math? I faintly recall them being present somewhere around grade 7 or 8 of grade school. Might be wrong on that account since it's been quite a while. But they were definitely in the first grade of high school. what was it? x(1,2)= (-b+-root(b^2+4ac))/2a for the most simple one. At least I think that was it. Can't say I remember that well.

[yawmwen]

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;27425225]Who the fuck is just learning about quadratic equations in college? I was learning about them at 12 years old.
[/QUOTE]

Everyone who goes to my school I guess.

[SomeRandomGuy18]

[QUOTE=yawmwen;27423800]Uh trig is an advanced math class. College math is like linear and quadratic equations, and basic log.[/QUOTE]

Are you retarded

I'm doing trig and I'm a freshman

[yawmwen]

[QUOTE=wraithcat;27446447]All those complaining about closed book exams should go grab nothing but oral ones for a semester or so. It's only then that the fun starts :P Since you don't actually have the time to nicely nest your ideas but have to start more or less well of from the get go.

If you don't the profs tend to get prissy and throw you out. I'd also love to see anyone going trough any notes|books or whatever else during an examination like that.

Obviously it can't be done in all fields.

Also Quadratic equations college level math? I faintly recall them being present somewhere around grade 7 or 8 of grade school. Might be wrong on that account since it's been quite a while. But they were definitely in the first grade of high school. what was it? x(1,2)= (-b+-root(b^2+4ac))/2a for the most simple one. At least I think that was it. Can't say I remember that well.[/QUOTE]

Most of my core classes(the ones that are for my program) are hands-on, meaning you have to actually route the signals properly and set up mixes as the instructor tells you to. That's actually my favorite kind, I feel like I learn so much more with those exams than any other.

[Mystia Lorelei]

I think open book is stupid. Open notes, however, isn't. Like mentioned earlier in the thread, any idiot can open a textbook and copy directly onto the test, but with notes it all depends on how much you actually paid attention in that class.

No one is perfect and you might forget something trivial, and on some tests it's all or nothing with no leeway for that sort of thing. So why not be able to use the notes you yourself wrote down to look it up again or check over your work afterward to make sure you didn't screw something up?

Eh. I brought it up back when I was in high school in vain. I think only one teacher actually saw my point but it was one of those "too little, too late" moments after a particularly hard exam (which, to memory serves, the whole goddamn class bombed).

[yawmwen]

[QUOTE=SomeRandomGuy18;27449546]Are you retarded

I'm doing trig and I'm a freshman[/QUOTE]

lol ok cool

[Meller Yeller]

[QUOTE=nigfops;27432594]I'd go a step further and rant on about how our entire educational system is outdated and fucked, but since its not changing anytime soon, you might as well just get the degree and get out.[/QUOTE]
Why would you get a college degree in USA and then go to another country? That doesn't make any sense because it would be so much easier to find a job in the USA and you would make more money than doing that same job somewhere else.

Problem in USA is for the people who DONT have that degree and jobs that don't basically need one are thinning and thinning.

[Number-41]

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;27442451]

Depends on the course, for math and science courses, you can literally just turn to the page and find the format for finding the answer.
It sort of makes it easier to get marks, as you don't really have to memorize anything.[/QUOTE]

That's bollocks. A good professor doesn't ask questions that literally can be found in the textbook. That defeats the whole purpose of math & sciences, of any course actually. It happens, but I haven't had a single math exam yet asking such things...

[editline]16th January 2011[/editline]

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;27442451]∫language d language

[/QUOTE]

You forgot to set your integration borders from a to z :v:

[ChristopherB]

I've experienced a mix of open-note and closed-note exams in my time at college and I feel it really depends on the subject matter.

Memorizing the periodic table of elements for a chemistry class is a bit pointless and being tested on pure recollection of such minutia is frustrating. At the same time having a knowledge of key events in history and basic geographical awareness is useful in our day to day lives, even if it does seem mundane when you are forced to memorize them.

A good university will hire and train professors to tailor their classes so the student leaves each one with the knowledge and skills necessary for their future career.

[megafat]

I would like to request more threads like this, and not necessarily by the same person either.

[HeatPipe]

For history, we were allowed to have books in front of us, there were many questions quite hard and you needed to know how to use it or you were [b]dead[/b]