I held a similar attitude through college. An exam exists to test my knowledge and abilities, give me a solid idea of what I learned and where my deficits lay.

I held a similar attitude through college. An exam exists to test my knowledge and abilities, give me a solid idea of what I learned and where my deficits lay. It is not a test of short-term memory. If I didn't learn the material good enough the first time, then it was a waste of my efforts to cram for today. Likewise with the interview. Sure, I look into the company, the requirements. If they use libraries that I am unfamiliar with, I will review the documentation so I have a general idea of what it does and how I can map my existing skills against those libraries. But I can't become an expert in that short of a time, and I wouldn't purport to be one in the interview either. I have yet to do an interview that asked me to white board. I've been asked to solve some fairly basic problems (of the fubar variety). But then again, I've never applied to a business that was large enough that my resume and interview wasn't handled by my future direct supervisor. I've no interest in jumping through the hoops of a large bureaucratic corporation.