4 ms·

> every exam was take home When I was at MIT, most exams were in-class, but open book, open notes, open whatever you wanted to bring with you. And of course th

by pdonis 5mo ago

> every exam was take home When I was at MIT, most exams were in-class, but open book, open notes, open whatever you wanted to bring with you. And of course that just meant the exams were much harder, because they could assume you had all the necessary reference materials at hand and didn't have to conjure things up from memory. "Cheating" was pointless, because everyone else in the room was struggling just as hard as you were.

BalinKing 5mo ago
The advantage(?) of take-home exams à la Caltech is that they can be open everything and 3–5 hours long :-P (For what it's worth, being able to listen to music during an exam, ctrl+F a digital textbook, etc. was super awesome; it would deeply sadden me if that becomes infeasible in the future once enough students stop caring about the Honor Code....)
- pdonis 5mo ago
  I had in-class exams at MIT that were up to 3 hours long. Take home would definitely have been nicer.
  - hawaiianbrah 5mo ago
    I only recall some finals at MIT being that long. Which classes had normal exams that long?
    - pdonis 5mo ago
      They were finals, not ordinary tests or midterms. Junior and senior year, I think one was Chemical Engineering, but I can't remember the exact name or number.
    - throw48296 5mo ago
      This year 6.7800 has a both 3h midterm and a 3h final, for instance. Wish us luck.
      - pdonis 5mo ago
        That would be this? https://web.mit.edu/6.7800/www/info24.pdf https://web.mit.edu/6.7800/www/info24.pdf Or at least this year's version? If so, it looks like Course 6 hasn't gotten any easier over the years. Good luck!
  - throwaway2037 5mo ago
    Could students use the bathroom during the exam? If not, sheesh it could hard to hold it when very nervous during a long exam!
userbinator 5mo ago
"Cheating" was pointless, because everyone else in the room was struggling just as hard as you were. That reminds me of what an instructor (one of the best ones I've had) said a long time ago in response to one of my classmates asking if the exam could be open-book: "I could make it so, but it's not going to get any easier." The same instructor also responded to another question with "it doesn't mean I won't change the length of the exam."
throwaway2037 5mo ago
This is genius. I wish my own university exams were similar. I wasted so much mental effort trying to memorise stuff for an exam. In the real world, what you really need is a "good mental index" to know where to look it up. Sure, you can go to an extreme (in the wrong direction -- a "know-nothing"), but I felt memorising endless organic chemistry reactions for an exam was pointless for the real world.
wallst07 5mo ago
Same, but before AI. The thought being that the Engineering exams were so difficult that even with the text book, you had little chance of getting it right unless you knew the material. Often, final exams were just one question, but you were graded on the multiple pages of work you had to show.
- pdonis 5mo ago
  > Same, but before AI. My time at MIT was well before AI. And before smartphones. Even PCs were new then--I didn't have one until my senior year, and that PC had less computing power than is in things like microwaves nowadays.

by pdonis 5mo ago

BalinKing 5mo ago

The advantage(?) of take-home exams à la Caltech is that they can be open everything and 3–5 hours long :-P (For what it's worth, being able to listen to music during an exam, ctrl+F a digital textbook, etc. was super awesome; it would deeply sadden me if that becomes infeasible in the future once enough students stop caring about the Honor Code....)

pdonis 5mo ago
I had in-class exams at MIT that were up to 3 hours long. Take home would definitely have been nicer.
- hawaiianbrah 5mo ago
  I only recall some finals at MIT being that long. Which classes had normal exams that long?
  - pdonis 5mo ago
    They were finals, not ordinary tests or midterms. Junior and senior year, I think one was Chemical Engineering, but I can't remember the exact name or number.
  - throw48296 5mo ago
    This year 6.7800 has a both 3h midterm and a 3h final, for instance. Wish us luck.
    - pdonis 5mo ago
      That would be this? https://web.mit.edu/6.7800/www/info24.pdf https://web.mit.edu/6.7800/www/info24.pdf Or at least this year's version? If so, it looks like Course 6 hasn't gotten any easier over the years. Good luck!
- throwaway2037 5mo ago
  Could students use the bathroom during the exam? If not, sheesh it could hard to hold it when very nervous during a long exam!

userbinator 5mo ago

"Cheating" was pointless, because everyone else in the room was struggling just as hard as you were. That reminds me of what an instructor (one of the best ones I've had) said a long time ago in response to one of my classmates asking if the exam could be open-book: "I could make it so, but it's not going to get any easier." The same instructor also responded to another question with "it doesn't mean I won't change the length of the exam."

throwaway2037 5mo ago

This is genius. I wish my own university exams were similar. I wasted so much mental effort trying to memorise stuff for an exam. In the real world, what you really need is a "good mental index" to know where to look it up. Sure, you can go to an extreme (in the wrong direction -- a "know-nothing"), but I felt memorising endless organic chemistry reactions for an exam was pointless for the real world.

wallst07 5mo ago

Same, but before AI. The thought being that the Engineering exams were so difficult that even with the text book, you had little chance of getting it right unless you knew the material. Often, final exams were just one question, but you were graded on the multiple pages of work you had to show.

pdonis 5mo ago
> Same, but before AI. My time at MIT was well before AI. And before smartphones. Even PCs were new then--I didn't have one until my senior year, and that PC had less computing power than is in things like microwaves nowadays.