I'm a big fan of unusual approaches to testing, good as I was at the conventional kind. In high school astronomy, we could bring in a few pages of notes. I onc

I'm a big fan of unusual approaches to testing, good as I was at the conventional kind. In high school astronomy, we could bring in a few pages of notes. I once wrote out the notes in great detail, FORGOT THEM AT HOME, and got the highest score on the test. In college I learned a lot studying for tests, both multiple choice (geology) and essay (history), where the questions were highly predictable. I love the test Hilary Putnam announced the first day of every class: Part 1: Write a suitable question for this class. Part 2: Answer it. You will be graded on both parts. (Note: The recursive answer of giving him his own question back turns out to be infinitely long.) I once gave an open book test, saying exam questions would be chosen only from problems I'd assigned for homework. Students still did badly. (Ouch.)