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  • Category: General

    Open-book Examination: Your opinion please

    Long long back, in the 1920s, Rabindranath Thakur was once the paper-setter in Bengali language and literature of the University of Calcutta. He allowed the examinees to open their text-books and answer the questions asked in that particular paper. That was, as per my knowledge, the first open-book examination in India.

    The experiment, unfortunately, was not accepted by the educationists and students at that time. But it was noted that the examinees could not score better marks in that particular paper. Many examinees, in fact, scored marks less than their expectation.

    In 2020 and in 2021, Delhi University conducted open-book examinations (during the Covid pandemic). My daughter appeared in the second year (2020) and third year (2021) of Graduation at that time. She, and many of her friends, said that open-book examinations were not that easy. If an examinee doesn't have an idea about the particular question asked, he/she would find it very difficult to get the answer from the text-book and then frame the answer systematically. Further, in open-book examination, almost all examinees face acute time-problem. My daughter said that many of her friends could not get good marks in the open-book examination.

    So, in my opinion, students should not feel elated in case of open-book examination.

    Readers! What do you think about open-book examination? Do the students get advantages in this form of examination?

    (Competition entry: A thread a day challenge)
  • #775281
    The open book examination, though seems to be a novel or good idea, is not a going to help the students in any way.
    The open book examination is not so easy to adopt as the student cannot write the answers in the Examination that too in the prescribed time limit.
    The students who are thorough with the book only can locate the answer from the book and if the student is thorough with the book he need not expect any book for writing the answer in the examinations.

  • #775285
    If the question paper is set in a right way for assessing the knowledge of a student then the student will not be able to do much by referring to the text book in the examination hall. Another important thing in this matter is that if questions are asked in an exhaustive way expecting long and detailed answers then the student will not be able to do it with the help of text books within the estimated time and will not be able to cover all the questions in the maximum time given.
    Another important thing is that if during the year the student had not studied seriously then on that particular day he will not be able to write the content of text book in his style because he had not learned that type of writing which is usually learned after the thorough studies.

    Knowledge is power.

  • #775357
    Open book examination is the concept where the examinees will be allowed to carry books with them and refer to the books to answer the questions given in the examination. This type of examination can be conducted only when the questions are not Multiple answers type questions.
    A similar thread was posted by me on this site (What are your views on open book examinations?.
    There are some advantages of this type of examination. One need not mug up the subject but they should understand the subject and get conversant with the subject. Then only a student can open the relevant chapters in the book.
    Time adjustment is also a big problem I feel in such type of examinations.

    drrao
    always confident


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