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> For most Mechanical Engineering classes, if you haven't learned the material, cramming during the exam isn't going to help you. Or, if you can figure out how

by sq_ 6y ago

> For most Mechanical Engineering classes, if you haven't learned the material, cramming during the exam isn't going to help you. Or, if you can figure out how to do it during the exam just by using the textbook, you're going to be fine in the real world. I had a similar experience in my better CS classes. Some professors clearly realized that, if you hadn't been paying attention and learned how not to screw up, you wouldn't be able to figure it out, even given pretty wide ranging access to information. So they'd hand us a take-home exam, due in a day or two, and we'd be allowed to use all relevant documentation. I always liked these, as they seemed the most similar to what would happen in industry, unlike some other professors who expected you to have memorized obscure library functions and be able to write perfect code on paper under time pressure.

eru 6y ago
Generally agreed. However there are two problems: First: the more support you allow, the harder you have to make the test. Second (especially relevant for the equivalent situation in job interviews / hiring): the student can hire someone to do the exam for them. (Or more casually: a friend can help.) There's no guarantee that on the job you'll always have that friend available, or are willing to shell out for hired help, nor even allowed to leak company secrets like that. So that hired help doesn't approximate real world conditions as allowing to look stuff up on Googe definitely does.
meddlepal 6y ago
Take home exams basically become group exams with your friends the night before they are due.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  you can make this less effective by giving more complicated problems with different paths to the answer. it doesn't take a genius to notice that the four people who sit together in lecture turned in very similar exams. students who "change it up a little" tend make superficial changes that almost make it more obvious what they were doing.
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
My concern with take-home exams is it becomes a question of, how much else is competing for your time? A student who is taking a more intensive course load, or who has to work part-time to afford tuition, is at a disadvantage over their peers. This applies to all assignments of course, but they tend to have further out due dates, giving students flexibility to budget their time.
- sq_ 6y ago
  You make a good point. At the very least, I think there's a way to better implement in class exams for CS and similar disciplines so that studying isn't just about trying to memorize stdlib functions that, in the real world, you would just have documentation for.

by sq_ 6y ago

eru 6y ago

Generally agreed. However there are two problems: First: the more support you allow, the harder you have to make the test. Second (especially relevant for the equivalent situation in job interviews / hiring): the student can hire someone to do the exam for them. (Or more casually: a friend can help.) There's no guarantee that on the job you'll always have that friend available, or are willing to shell out for hired help, nor even allowed to leak company secrets like that. So that hired help doesn't approximate real world conditions as allowing to look stuff up on Googe definitely does.

meddlepal 6y ago

Take home exams basically become group exams with your friends the night before they are due.

leetcrew 6y ago
you can make this less effective by giving more complicated problems with different paths to the answer. it doesn't take a genius to notice that the four people who sit together in lecture turned in very similar exams. students who "change it up a little" tend make superficial changes that almost make it more obvious what they were doing.

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

My concern with take-home exams is it becomes a question of, how much else is competing for your time? A student who is taking a more intensive course load, or who has to work part-time to afford tuition, is at a disadvantage over their peers. This applies to all assignments of course, but they tend to have further out due dates, giving students flexibility to budget their time.

sq_ 6y ago
You make a good point. At the very least, I think there's a way to better implement in class exams for CS and similar disciplines so that studying isn't just about trying to memorize stdlib functions that, in the real world, you would just have documentation for.