Open Book Examination - is it easier than a traditional exam?
Somnath Tewari, CPP®, PCI®, NEBOSH-IGC®
Senior Field Security Officer at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
Yesterday, I appeared for the #NEBOSH International General Certificate Open Book Examination on Occupational Health & Safety. Sharing my experience briefly here;
Open book examinations are not easier in any extent than the closed book traditional exam (even though it is perceived so). Answering the questions requires more than just copying information straight from texts. The question paper set by #NEBOSH board is based on a particular scenario and we are suppoed to handle some tasks expected from a #Safety officer. We have access to our course materials, other guides from the net - yet, these can only guide us. Ultimately one has to write down answer from his own understanding and experience. Thus, we can only answer with some confidence, if we fully understand all the concepts. In traditioanl exam, one may have direct questions with specific answers such as defination, specific guidelies (ISO 450001 etc.) and have staright forward answers. That is not the case in open book examination. Aanother factor that challenges a participant is - answers must be within a specified word limit (3000 words in our case). This compelled me to go through the answer sheet at least three times and suitably trim it to that word limit.
This is for the first time #NEBOSH conduted open book examination and indeed an unique experience for us. Whether you like it or not; open book examinations will effect a fundamental change in the attitude of a learner. It does not mean that participants do not need to study for exams. It implies that they should understand concepts, and use them to solve problems. During this #COVID19 pandemic era, probably we shall witness more such examinations by different professional certification bodies. #OSH #SafetyManagement #HSE
Accomplished Conflict Analyst (GHoA). Security Risk Management Practitioner. Intellectual Nomad. Sanity in Cynicism.
4yWell done, Somnath
Enabling the mission by protecting people and critical infrastructure.
4yI agree that open book exams are not necessarily easier. The Prince2 Practitioner exam is open book and plenty of people fail that exam. So are my SANS Institute Global Industrial Control Systems Security and Global Incident Handler exams. For those exams the key thing is knowing the material and where to rapidly locate information in the books. That means you need to read the books multiple times. The questions in both are scenario based as well. so what you are doing is applying the concepts from the books to simulated real life situations. For the SANS Institute exams you had to apply the concepts on actual virtual machine computers running Windows and Linux. In real life you refer to documents and manuals as well.