TheAtheist

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8341886.stm

Engineer Babar

hahahaahahhaha.. Then what is the advantage of taking exam??

WereBo

Exactly, exams have never meant you know your subject, all they indicate is that you're capable of researching it

-=Rousseau=-

One of the hardest exams I've ever taken was open book, open notes, and free access to the internet. Why? The test was written with that well in mind and, with limited time, it was impossible to get the right answers to the problems unless you already knew how to do them very quickly. It would take you longer to look up how to do a certain type of problem and follow directions than you would be given to complete the problem. The average score on that exam was a 65/100. Of course, this was a university level econometrics exam, but...

DonaldG

I my mind, reference books, calculators and access to the 'net should be allowed.

An exam should not be a test of memory IE trying to remember dozens of formulae. It should be a test of HOW to apply correctly the formulae etc...

Lets face it, in real life, the reference books will be available.

jamiemac2005

Yeah sorry but exams are generally just preperation for future work and testing on that, who's boss has ever said "Go and work this out... oh yeah, sit in silence, don't talk to anyone and stay away from a computer, calculator or any form of technology"... Because they don't, everyone in an examinable world has easy access to the internet and technology which they would use to fix whatever problem they encounter in real life so i feel no reason for them to not allow it in exams.

DonaldG

I am now retired so you can imagine the length of years I had at work. I have had several career changes all of which were of a technical nature. I have needed to take many professional exams to get certification.

In all those years, in reality, I have never not had access to reference sources when needed.

Phædrus2401

Go Denmark!

zuluclayman

I agree with Donald - as a TAFE (Technical And Further Education - read tertiary education) teacher a few years ago I always set open book exams in all areas figuring it was more practical to test students research and application of knowledge skills than their memory skills. Unfortunately as a secondary school teacher they won't let me do that, insisting that the students should "know" all the content of their courses, where in fact, when they leave and need to apply the knowledge they will look most of the content up. Sure, it is possible to set application of knowledge style questions for exams but that still assumes a level of remembering of things that maybe we no longer need to store in our brains but rather have stored in a more efficient (?) system such as online or whatever shape future information technology will take.
End of rant

Engineer Babar

I don't think this is a reasonable way to take exams.. Consider the example of an engineer.. an engineer has to learn many formulas by heart and everywhere in the field work we go, we(engineers) don't carry books or internet excess with us to recall those formulas.. so due to the fear of examination, we learn the formulas by heart..

jamiemac2005

babar, a pda/iphone would carry those formulae... and if not then a scrapbook, something could be done...

I think the most crutial points to this argument are:
- The majority of people cram their way through exams and forget a lot of what they learned, and how to apply it... (This is the UK i'm talking about btw, i can't speak for anywhere else but we're a nation of last-minuters).
- Surely today's examining style is holding student's back in the dark ages, we have technology for a reason.
- Students would have access to these resources outside of the examination so they should have access to them inside, they'd also have the ability to a second opinion and other people.

If i speak for the computing and computer science area, over my computing course (6 modules, 4 of which were exams whilst 2 were coursework) i averaged 98%, i scored 100% in my last two exams and i was in the top 2%(or so) of the country... But, the way i did this through excessive practice, and i think in the end that's what i was graded on, not my actual knowledge of the subject but my ability to practice this stuff over and over... Most of the questions involved some form of mathematics(binary, hex) or tracing a program manually (trace tables) or writing some stupidly basic assembly... And these are things i'd use a calculator for now, or an IDE's trace feature, or an assembler and basic reference... And i don't know anyone who'd chose to do these things by hand because the technological way is so much more efficient.

Anyway i think the point i'm making is that pupils should be assessed as they would work, they should also not be assessed on doing a calculator's job but on the actual fundamental theory and practices(programming in my case) in their selected subject.

To be honest i think the UK's educational system is fundamentally flawed, i knew from when i was 14-15(GCSEs) that i wanted to study computer science and possibly software engineering at university, and i then spent 3 years having to study subjects that didn't interest me or in any way contribute towards my final goal... I'm now in university and studying computer science and i can't get over the fact that the majority of my education seems like a waste, i'm now having my entire last two years (computing) regurgitated to me by my lecturers in my first year of university because the majority of the people on my course haven't got a clue about it.

Anyway i think this minirant^ has gone on long enough :p so i'll stop haha.

TheAtheist

Speaking as a current student,I think the UK system as it is is flawed for many reasons. Firstly, I don't get facts and figures in my Government and Politics exam at AS or A2 level, but i get formula in my physics exam. Surely, in physics, i should be expected to learn the formulas on which the specific course is based, those being the fundamentals of physics?! It's ridiculous - i get given F = ma and the other, more accurate one, that escapes me right now. F = ma is GCSE level understanding for gods sake.
However, in my Government and Politics exam, i am expected to remember the dates of a large amount american legislation pertaining to civil rights since the beggining of the 20th century, as well as associated presidents in some cases. The problem is that at university and in any career in this field, i will most likely have the internet and journals etc etc at my fingertips to gather this information.

Our exam system is not relevant to the world of further study or work. I commend the Danish government for being so brave in breaking with the tradition and trying this new method. Our government will never be brave enough to do the same, for fear of reprisals and loosing the election. Pathetic really isn't it!

sandman55

It is a balance of learning (so that you have the knowledge to do the job) and also being able to find the information.
Before I retired (as an electrician) I still had to have the knowledge to do the job. I was not expected to have wiring rules book in my head but I had to be familiar enough with it so that I could find the information and with the day to day stuff you had it in your head but with the not so familiar you had to look it up.

Doctors Lawyers Engineers etc. all have reference books and need to consult them from time to time and today we also have the advantage of the internet.