Sorry for the lack of updates but I promise I'll be back on V Day (or at least one day after). Currently mugging for 3 other papers that will commence from 20th onward. While studying, I really have no idea why can't exams be open-book. Not that I'm finding the easy way out to scoring AD or what not, but I don't see why is there a need to memorise almost everything you need for exams.
Isn't exams about knowing how to apply what you've learnt over the semester? Why has it become like you HAVE to get them in your head and do it? I don't see everyone scoring full marks during a open-book test, so I don't think having an open-book exam means you'll definitely score full marks and thus it should not be open-book.
To me, if an exam is open-book, it allows students to make use of their resources to the maximum and it will then tests the students whether or not they know what to apply in the questions. If an exam requires the students to memorise everything, isn't it more like a memory quiz to see how much you can memorise, rather than what you truly know?
Whatever it is, books are dead; what you truly get to experience is what keeps you alive and going.
x.