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Stop testing people on memorization and then you don't have to worry about cheating. Allow people to recall data with resources typically available to them in t
by bastardoperator 5y ago
Stop testing people on memorization and then you don't have to worry about cheating. Allow people to recall data with resources typically available to them in the real world. This is the same issue I have with code/interview challenges that say don't use the internet. I would be a fool to not use the resources readily available to me or at least validate what I think I already know.
- dehrmann 5y ago> Stop testing people on memorization and then you don't have to worry about cheating I'm not following. If you don't know the material, you have same incentive to cheat.
- sabas123 5y agoIt could also help prevent unwanted communication between the students and the outside world (or between themselves).
- metalliqaz 5y agonearly every exam I had at University, as a Computer Engineer, allowed 1 sheet of notes. So they were already not focusing on memorization even 20 years ago.
- kwhitefoot 5y agoAll of my B.Sc. Applied Physics exams including the finals were open note (anything in your own hand plus any duplicated sheets handed out in lectures). My finals were in 1977, Exeter Uni. There was no limit on how many notes one brought in to an exam. Some of the weaker students turned up with rucksacks full of ring binders and the invigilators had frequently to admonish them to make less noise rustling the papers! Those students almost all failed or attained only a pass degree. In my opinion this successfully weeded out those who thought that memorisation was enough. The exams typically never asked anything that could be answered simply by looking up the answer in notes or even the textbook.
- rootusrootus 5y agoI just finished up my masters in CS from OMSCS at GT and some of the classes allow a sheet of notes. It's still a thing, even in the days of online education and proctor software.
- pinkman68419 5y agoI graduated that program a few years ago. The best final I had was Intro to HPC, you were allowed to use book, notes, internet, etc. The questions were open-ended and in-depth enough that the average on the test was still around 60-70 IIRC. You need a very deep understanding of the material to answer the questions sufficiently.
- dehrmann 5y agoYes, the sheet of notes means you're not memorizing formulae, but I'm 95% sure the real motivator for professors to allow them is you learn when you put the notes together.
- periphrasis 5y agoI think this common argument underrates the extent to which core factual mastery informs your ability to perform analysis and to synthesize arguments. For example, if given the exam question “Discuss the role of demagoguery in Athenian democratic politics in the Peloponnesian War.” and you need to look up whether the Sicilian Expedition happened before or after the death of Pericles, then you probably don’t really understand the role of Athenian political dysfunction during the war either.
- garduque 5y agoI have to look up all of those things, which means I didn't gain anything in class/assignments/reading, and no amount of Googling is going to help me if the person reading my answer is an informed person, whether my test is proctored or not. Which is a long way to "yes, I agree."
- jrumbut 5y agoI very much agree with you that knowing a lot of facts is very helpful for developing arguments. But I do wonder what students should be expected to produce on an exam. Perhaps it's about the type of question asked. Knowing the Sicilian Expedition happened after the death of Pericles is different than knowing it happened in (checks Wikipedia) 413 BC. But then knowing the year is very important for the world historical context. At that era in Greek history, events in Persia had more impact than events in Italy and Britain was essentially unknown to them. Yet here we are living in a world where the Parthenon friezes are in the British Museum. It's hard to put together the different moving parts without dates.