I have this exact policy on the final exams in some of the college-level math classes I teach. At the risk of repeating what others have said, this is because the goal of the class is not for the students to cram their heads with information which they can then regurgitate verbatim, but to make sure they know, understand, and can apply the concepts and techniques. Also, that (as boozilu noted) the process of creating the “cheat sheet” has educational value. That’s why I insist that it be the student’s own work, not a photocopy or computer printout.
On other tests, they’re closed-book and I don’t allow any use of notes. This is because having notes available will sometimes work to the students’ disadvantage, making students think that they don’t need to be prepared, and they can walk in with blank minds and look up everything they need to know in their notes. Also because, sometimes, there are some things that you really do have to know, and not just know where to look up.
This was my experience also, particularly in organic Chemistry. Like Lunar Eclipse says, the important task was knowing which formula or equation to apply and the test was definitely written that way. I really liked the process and I discovered one of my “cheatsheets” in a box with other old papers just the other day. Actually brought back some good memories. I think I need to get out more. :rolleyes:
It’s not so long since my Open University degree. There was a set “Handbook” for each course that you could take into the exam, with as many annotations as you cared to put in as long as you didn’t add extra pages or Post-It notes. Just as in the other subjects mentioned, the point was (1) if you didn’t know the course material well enough, you would not be able to find or apply the relevant notes and (2) even for material you were able to look up, there was only a certain amount you would be able to use in the time available.
My Physics 1&2 prof at uni allowed a “cheat card” - we were allowed to bring a 3"x5" index card that could have front and back filled with whatever you wanted. You could have things like:
It’s not cheating if it’s allowed, by definition. A well-designed test should test a student’s actual understanding and comprehension of the topics, not test if a student was able to memorize formulae.
My Physics Prof was glad to explain why he allowed cards:
[ul]
[li] It’s a way to “force” students to do at least a cursory review before a test. [/li][li] It helps students feel calmer at the start of a test instead of freaking out that omgi’mblankingoneverything![/li][li] Like I said above, he tests comprehension - all the equations and diagrams in the world aren’t gonna help you if you have no clue what to do with them. [/li][li] Everyone has some basic bit of info that just doesn’t 100% stick in memory for some reason (like SOHCAHTOA or the unit circle above), but they’re perfectly able to use the info correctly. [/li][/ul]
[sub]He’s an awesome professor. You learn your stuff but still have fun. He always includes STORY problems featuring things like Buffy, the Simpsons, or random things. This is an actual question from an old test: 1) The fish are starting to fight back – they are arming themselves with poison dart guns with laser sights. A fish is 1 meter below the surface of the water (nw=1.33), and is 2 meters horizontally from shore. The fish aims the laser at an angle of 30 degrees with respect to the vertical direction – and the beam lands right between the eyes of a fisherman standing at the water’s edge.
a) Calculate how high off the ground the fisherman’s eyes are.
b) Should the fish shoot the dart gun at that initial 30 degree angle – or should there be a different aiming angle (if so, calculate it)?[/sub]
My high school trigonometry teacher allowed us to bring in a 3 by 5 card with whatever we wanted written on it. He said, “For some of you, nothing you write is going to help.”
I suggested, “How about a prayer to St. Jude, the Patron Saint of hopeless causes?”
As a computer instructor, I told the students that they could bring their reference manuals, use their computers, the built in manual pages, or whatever on the test. “Anything but your neighbor”, I’d say.
I told them that, as a Unix professional, I had all these available to me at my job so they could have them on the test.
I also wrote the tests knowing they’d have these resources and gauged its difficulty accordingly.
I do this in many of my classes. Many of the comments are spot on. Focus on application, de-emphasize rote memorization etc.
One other reasonI use it is that creating the cheat sheet is a form of studying. Students will work very hard writing and re-writing their cheat sheets to make them perfect, memorizing the material along the way.
I also firmly believe that everyone is allowed one “senior moment” now and again and a cheat sheet, like this, will help those students who really know the material but just blank on something for a minute demonstrate their true mastery of the material.
I give lots of problem-solving take home exams for the same purpose.
We were allowed a cheat sheet in my high school AP Physics class - one side only. I loved high school physics, and making those cheat sheets was one of the reasons. I took a lot of time determining how to lay it out, where to put the formulas, where to put the examples, where to put the definitions. I also remember my teacher giving me extra credit one time for having the best cheat sheet she’d ever seen.
I majored in Math at college, and we had lots of ‘open book, open notes’ tests. If you have no grasp of the material to begin with, then having the book available isn’t going to help much…but if all you just can’t seem to recall whether a particular formula uses “2x” or “x[sup]2[/sup]”, then you’ve already demonstrated your knowledge by knowing which formula you need to use in the first place.
I remember one class I had that had this rule. For the final exam, one piece of paper, with whatever you wanted on it. I found the smallest font I could read with my naked eyes, reduced margins to the minimum, etc, etc, and typed up essentially my entire semester’s notes on one page, front and back. And then didn’t glance at it once in the test.
The act of making that page was a much more thorough review and study session than I would have done if the “cheat” wasn’t available. As it was, I went into the test with every fact from the class fresh in my mind, and was able to reel them off as needed. We were allocated three hours. I finished in about 20 minutes. Oh, and I aced the class.
I agree. Back in 1979 or so, when I was in junior high, I had a test in English history in which we were allowed to have a single sheet of notes with us. Summarizing the Tudor and Stuart dynasties and the religious conflicts related to them was a very helpful study practice. I don’t think I looked at the sheet at all as I answered the essay questions on the test.
Too many responses to thank y’all one by one, so a group thank you to all for taking the time to share your experiences.
As it seems that the use of notes in exams is both wide spread and acceptable, I now don’t feel so bad about making use of them myself.
Though my uni is small and fairly new, it has a decent international reputation. However, I have heard locals suggest that it is a bit of a Mickey Mouse institution with regard to how easy the uni makes it to graduate. It’s good to know that it’s not uncommon to be allowed notes in exams at the tertiary level.
So, I best get to work on my [del]cheat sheet[/del] crib notes. Thanks for all your input.
This is what one of my profs told us. In some ways, a cheat sheet cheated you in that you might not trust what you know, and you’d waste time double-checking it.
Back in the early 80s, taking a Calc IV final—it was “Open Book/Open Note,” i.e., you could bring in as much of whatever resource you thought would help. There were four questions, and we had three hours to complete the test.
The average grade was 70%.
As others have mentioned, it was all about knowing which formula to apply, and working through the derivation rather than “looking up” an answer.
If you had not learned the relevant material, you were screwed no matter what you brought in with you. If you had, on the other hand, learned the course, the test was, not trivial, but eminently doable.
My chemical engineering Themodynamics (a semester 4 class) teacher allowed open books and notes, and had full access to slides from all the lectures, and students were prepared to solve stuff like this ontheir graphing calculators.
Instead, he tested for knowledge of applying the material. Instead of very complicated problems like the forces between two molecules, he asked basic questions that showed people knew how to work through problems. Simple stuff like “Given this information on balloons and helium, how many helium balloons do you need to lift a 100kg man up?”.
And yet… people complained it was too hard, despite some of the questions being things I could solve in highschool. Knowing the formulas isn’t going to do shit if you don’t know how to apply them and think critically.
I’ve taught stats and I’ve only ever done open book and notes. Put it this way: a student who has never cracked the book, and never studies, will not do any better with the material in front of them. It might help if they have several hours, but usually they will run out of time if they spend it all searching for terms.
The other option would be to put all the formulas on the overhead, or print them in the back of the test. The latter is a waste of paper and more work. For the former, I’d rather keep the overhead off so I can check my email and such, thank you very much.
Cheat sheets also seemed kind of condescending to me. They reward efficiency and anticipating what will be on the test* and not so much knowing things. Open/open encourages knowing where things are in the book, which isn’t ideal, but oh well. Also: as most math and stats grades on both the steps taken as well as the final answer, cheating isn’t as big a deal in these classes.
*“Will this be on the test?” or “Do we have to know this?” or “Can you make a study guide?” are phrases no instructor wants to hear.
A well-designed test should test a student’s actual understanding and comprehension of the topics, not test if a student was able to memorize formulae.
