Cheat Sheet or Open-Book? A Comparison of the Effects of Exam Types on Performance, Retention, and Anxiety

Abstract

The differences between open-book, cheat sheet, and closed-book exams were examined in two different types of psychology courses. A total of 297 students enrolled in eight sections of Introductory Psychology and 99 students This study developed from an ongoing debate in our department, one which is probably happening in many academic departments. The question is which type of exam is best. All teachers want their students to learn and retain the material they cover and at the same time enjoy the process of learning. One way to check how well students have learned is by giving exams. There are many teachers who consider the traditional closed-book and notes time-limited exam the best measure of student learning, while others argue for alternatives, such as cheat sheet or open-book tests. While a closed-book exam is probably the most common type of exam in psychology courses, alternative exam types, such as cheat sheets (or crib notes) where the students can prepare notes to use on the exam ahead of time, and open-book exams where the student can use all their material during the test, are increasingly accepted. Students themselves prefer alternative forms of testing, for example, Williams and Wong (2009) found that students prefer open-book exams compared to closed-book tests. Students believed that being able to use notes, cheat sheets and texts during an exam would improve grades and decrease their anxiety. Are these expectations justified? The purpose of this project was to examine the effectiveness of various exam types: open-book, closed-book, and cheat sheet. There is a relatively long history of trial-and-error efforts to improve testing procedures (Kalish, 1958;J. M. Stalnaker & R. C. Stalnaker, 1934). Surprisingly, there is little consensus among investigators as to which testing style may be the

Open Book Examination and Higher Education During COVID-19: Case of University of Delhi

“…Therefore, it is being concluded that mean marks scored by the students in an OBE is significantly higher than the mean marks scored in a CBE. This is in line with the results of studies conducted in the past, showing that students score higher in an OBE (Agarwal et al, 2008;Francis, 1982;Gharib et al, 2012;Krarup et al, 1974). However, many researchers have also provided empirical evidence that there are no significant differences in the performance of the students (Brightwell et al, 2004;Ioannidou, 1997;Pauker, 1974).…”

Open-Book Versus Closed-Book Tests in University Classes: A Field Experiment

“…Different degrees of motivational effects might therefore explain the difference between our findings and earlier laboratory studies. The results of Gharib et al. (2012) field experiment in which open-book and closed-book tests in a university course did not affect performance in a later test might speak against this interpretation.…”

“…Thus, final test delays of up to 1 week might have been too short to detect a retrieval practice effect compared to open-book testing. The study by Gharib et al. (2012) used a delay of 2 weeks but their findings are not easily comparable to the other studies, as the manipulation did not concern a learning condition in terms of a practice test but an exam condition: students had either access to their notes, to a self-prepared cheat sheet, or to none of the former in the exam.…”

“…One active control condition that is particularly informative when it comes to retrieval practice as the source of the testing effect is open-book testing (Agarwal et al., 2008; Agarwal and Roediger, 2011; Gharib et al., 2012; Roelle and Berthold, 2017). Here, students are allowed to consult their notes or textbooks while taking the (practice) test.…”

“…There is also one field experiment investigating the benefits of open-book versus closed-book tests, which was conducted with students in an introductory psychology course (Gharib et al., 2012). Here, the manipulation was slightly different in that actual exam types (closed-book, open-book, and cheat sheet) were manipulated rather than no-stakes or low-stakes practice tests.…”