Preparing for an Online, Open

Writing an exam remotely probably wasn’t your original plan, but Academic Skills can offer some helpful tips as you mentally prep for new exam formats! Many instructors have transitioned to open-book exams; here we’ve laid out some strategies to help you prepare (yes, you still need to study for this type of exam!).

Challenges of an open-book exam

While open-book exams offer the opportunity to look through notes during the test, they are not necessarily easier than closed-book exams. Why?

Open-book exams often still have time limits; you generally cannot look up the answer to every question and still have time to complete the exam within the time limit.

Open-book exams focus on synthesis, analysis, and application, rather than memorization. This means that open-book exams generally require higher-order thinking and writing skills.

It is more tempting NOT to study for an open-book exam, leaving students unprepared for writing them well when the time comes.

Keys to Success

We’ll get into the details of how to prepare, but here is a brief overview of the keys to writing a successful open-book exam:

Protect your Academic Integrity

All work you submit for credit must be individual, original, and free from unearned advantage.

For an online, open-book exam, it is important that you understand what materials you are permitted to access and reference. You may be limited to use of your course notes and textbook, which means you should not access your web browser, social media apps, or messaging platforms during the exam. Take note of all exam instructions in advance of the exam date, and if necessary, ask for clarification on permitted materials.   

It is also important to note that you should not be posting or accessing exam questions or responses to questions on sharing sites or social media. Learn more about the Academic Integrity Policy and How to Protect your Academic Integrity in Online Learning.

Steps to prepare for an open-book exam

Give yourself plenty of time to prepare for your open-book exam. Follow these steps to prepare efficiently and effectively.

Step 1: Understanding expectations

Make sure you understand your instructor’s expectations for the exam and that you clearly understand the exam framework:

Step 2: Review the course objectives and themes

This is a great place to start setting up a framework for organizing your notes, starting your review, and beginning to make connections between course ideas that will be important for those higher-order thinking questions.

First, review your syllabus:

As you take note of the objectives/themes/readings, start to think about connections between them – how does one lead into the next? How are they related to each other? How do they relate to the assignments you’ve done?

Step 3: Prepare study notes

This is the bulk of your open-book exam prep, but completing the previous steps will make this step easier!

Figure 1: Sample column headings for study charts for different disciplines. This organizational chart can be adapted for different disciplines. Psychology Concept/
Theory   Key Theorist   Historical Context   Main Idea   Application  
English Author   Title   Major Characters   Key Events   Important Themes  
Business Admin Concept/Skills   Main Theorist   Historical Context   Main Ideas   Application for Workplace  
History Module   Time Period/Region   Major Events   Key Vocabulary   Connections to course themes  
Figure 2: Tree diagram example

A tree diagram is hierarchical; a general topic branches into specific sub-topics.

  Figure 3: Mind map (or concept map) example

 A mind map is a web-like graphic showing connections between a central concept and related ideas.

DIGITAL

Step 4: Practice

Effective studying goes beyond just reading through your notes. If you’ve completed Step 3 and worked on highlighting themes, organizing ideas, and making connections between those ideas, that’s a great start. Remember that open-book exam questions will likely be looking for more application examples or more evidence of analysis and critical thinking – i.e. more than simple recall of information. Keep that in mind as you try out some of these methods to prepare yourself for your exam:

Step 5: Make a system

As a last step to prepare for the exam, make sure you have a system in place for finding the information you need quickly! Here are some tips for developing your system:

Tips for test time

You’ve thought about the test expectations, reviewed the course objectives, prepared your notes, practiced, and developed a system for quickly accessing your notes. Now it’s test time! Here are some tips for actually writing the exam:

Reading the question – understand what the question is asking; identify key words in the question.

For multiple choice questions, review all responses before selecting – analyze your options. See more on writing multiple choice exams. 

For questions that you aren’t sure about, take time to refer to your notes. Use your study charts or table of contents (or the search function for digital notes) to find relevant content for the question quickly.

For free response questions, write full and complete answers with appropriate detail to demonstrate your understanding of course concepts. See more on writing free response exams – i.e. short answer and essays. 

If your test is online, make sure you have any technology troubleshooting done ahead of time. Here is some additional .

Lastly…

Good luck on all of your exams, from the Academic Skills team! Please note that Academic Skills appointments can be booked through the Student Experience Portal – feel free to make an appointment to further discuss study strategies.