Re: Would like to find study group for computer science comprehensive exams.

In article <13i1niffnk7pb99@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Patricia Shanahan <pats@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Why does the argument for open book exams carry more weight for advanced
classes?

Some degree of memorization of basic facts is necessary. I can't learn to
speak a foreign language if I never memorize any of its vocabulary, relying
instead on looking up every word in the dictionary as I need it. I can't
learn to play a sonata if I never memorize musical notation, relying instead
on looking up the meaning of the notation when I need it.

Closed-book exams have the virtue of testing memorization directly, and this
is more defensible when memorization of the material has direct value. It
does have the defect of testing only short-term memory, but that is an
argument for having more closed-book pop quizzes, rather than an argument
against closed-book exams.

I think you are underestimating the effectiveness of closed book for
making previous exam questions valid. When I was preparing for the GRE,
the books seriously suggested memorizing lists of words and definitions.
Surely people who are capable of that are also capable of memorizing the
last few exams and their answers.

They may be capable of doing that, but at some point it becomes easier to
learn how to do the problem than to memorize material verbatim.
--
Tim Chow tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great, will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us from
the center of the earth. ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
.