Learning. Life.

Preparing for an open book test is a bit different to a closed book test. The emphasis isn’t on memorising as much – although it’s still worth doing that – but your main focus is on understanding and preparing notes to take into the test.

1. Understand the materials

Your aim is to have a broad understanding of all topics that are to be covered in the test. Use methods that suit your preferred learning style. Discuss it with others (auditory), draw mind-maps (visual), read background information (read/write), apply it (kinaesthetic).

Make sure you know what topics are in the test – check the course outline and ask your lecturer. Make sure you study all topics that are in the test, and don’t study those that aren’t (if you’re really sure they’re not in the test).

Add background information from the textbook and other places to your study notes. Deep and wide understanding is better here than memorising the few facts you wrote down in class.

Typical questions involve scenarios, which require you to apply the theory to a case study which is completely new to you, compare and contrast questions, which require you to relate topics to each other, and analyse and develop questions, which require you to use the skills taught.

You will not see a lot of questions that ask you to list, describe or explain a topic. These answers would come straight out of your notes, and unless the lecturer is trying to give you an easy time, they’re only going to use these as warm-up questions to help you started.

2. Prepare notes to take into the test

Your aim is to take in only what you need for the test, so that you can find what you need, quickly. You won’t know what you need in advance, so try to get as much information from the tutor as possible.

Identify all the things that might help you, then consider them carefully. Don’t take in too much – the more you have, the more time you’re going to waste moving books around and trying to find what you’re looking for.

Three top tips:

1. Use post-it notes as bookmarks. Use different colours for different topics, and write the topic on the bookmark, so you can find it easily – you don’t have to flick through a whole lot of bookmarks to find the right one.

2. Highlight mercilessly. Key words and the heading of important sections are good things to highlight. Use different colours.

3. Make kick-ass study notes. The more concise your notes are, the easier it will be to find what you need.

If this level of preparation is new to you, here’s a very, very useful hint: you know those people who always do really well in tests and exams? This is what they do for every test. Honest. It makes their study time much more effective and, of course, as they do this preparation they’re learning the stuff, making sense of it, and relating it to other things they’ve learnt – all of which we call deep learning, and which is the key to getting really good grades (and really learning the stuff). Seriously.

Once you’ve got a broad understanding and have prepared your materials, then you can prepare like any other test. When you sit the test, do what you would in any other test, but keep a very careful eye on the time you spend on each question.

Good luck.

Hint: they’re not as easy as you might think.

My Helpdesk students have an open book test coming up (evil laughter … more evil laughter … maniacal laughter).

I hate to tell you, but open book tests aren’t easy.

I thought might help you to know how I think about open book tests, and why I set them in my practical subjects. Remember that your other lecturers might think differently.

I set open book tests for topics which I believe you need to understand, not memorise. For example, in my Database Administration course the final test is to performance tune a large Oracle database (more evil laughter). Anyone who knows Oracle knows how easy that test will be (hint: it’s not).

Memorising the syntax of the “sar” command is not the point. What I really want to know is whether you understand how databases work, how to test database performance, and how to tune the database. So I let you look up the sar command.

Besides, it won’t help you pass the test. If you don’t understand that other stuff, you won’t be able to tune the database properly. So you won’t be able to pass the test. I designed it that way.

Sure, the underlying principles are in your notes too – so you could, possibly, teach yourself how to tune a database while actually in the test. That would be fine by me – you learn it anyway.

But, of course, you won’t have time to use your notes. Not much, anyway. If you have to look up every single step, you won’t finish the test. So if you don’t know most of the stuff anyway, you won’t pass. I designed it that way too.

In the Helpdesk course, we look at writing Helpdesk Proposals and Implementation Plans. If you were actually writing a report, I’d rather you looked up what sections it should contain. I’m really interested in whether you understand what information should go into those sections. So I might give you a scenario, and ask you to write an Implementation Plan. You can get the structure from your notes – that’s fine – but you have to understand what’s needed. The scenario contains issues that you should pick up if you understand the theory – if you’re writing off the top of your head, you probably won’t get good marks. You guessed it – I designed the question that way. I also keep the students very busy in that test, so that if they have to go to their notes for everything, they won’t finish.

I don’t do an open book test as the major assessment component: in both these courses the test is 20% of the final grade. But they’re definitely not easy. In the next post I’ll talk about how to prepare for an open book test and what sorts of questions you might expect to see.

A great post on keeping focus from Leo of Zen Habits: 16 ways to keep a razor-sharp focus at work – good for students, too.

What?! OMG!! Oh well, I’ll worry about that when I’ve done all my assignments.

Right?

Wrong. Sorry.

Most of your assignments are due almost at the end of term, which only gives you one week to study before exams. It’s certainly possible to study only for that week, and pass – if you’re very (very) good at studying, and at sitting exams. But -

(a) If you don’t think you’re very, very good at studying and sitting exams, you might need to do a bit more, and

(b) If you want to do more than just pass, you might need to do a bit more.

Here’s how:

1. Single-task, don’t multi-task.
2. Plan out your study time.
3. Study smart, not hard.

1. Multi-tasking vs Single-tasking

We can’t do more than one thing at once – not well, anyway. It’s easier if we do one thing, concentrate on that thing, then put it down and do the next thing. So, when you study, pick one thing to work on for that session, and do that. This lets you get all the information you need together, keep it in your RAM (short term memory), and put it together efficiently. When you’ve got lots of different assignments and exams to work on, that means planning smart study sessions so that you can get through them all.

2. Plan out your study time

You need to:

a. Make a list of all the tasks you have to do: assignments, exams, housework, commitments etc. All of the tasks.

b. Prioritise based on importance, not urgency. Some things are more important than others. Check which papers are compulsory – they’re more important than optional ones. You’re going to have to make some hard choices here: do you go to the pub with your mates every night, or study some of those nights? This post will help you prioritise.

c. Then plan out when you can study, and break it into hour-long sessions. Schedule the tasks from step 1 into these sessions, most important first. This post will help you plan a good amount of study and still have a life too.

3. Study smarter, not harder.

Check out the Study Skills series from April for ideas on how to study smarter, not harder.

Then do the things you know you should: Follow your plan. Don’t let interruptions or temptations get in the way of your study: if a mate turns up, tell them you need to study. Keep what is important in mind. Don’t get raging drunk so that your next morning is a write-off. Eat healthy and exercise.

You know what you should be doing – it’s doing it that’s the hard thing. Hey – it’s only for a few weeks.

And if you’re procrastinating, check out this post

What they are: You’re reading a blog! “Blog” is short for “weblog”. Blogs are a series of articles, kind of like a newspaper or magazine, which are called “posts”, and are shown in date order (most recent first). The idea is that the blogger regularly publishes new content to keep their readers informed or to give them something new to think about.

Blogs can be written by anyone – experts, teachers, writers, or just ordinary people. There are blogs on every topic imaginable, from apple growing to zoology. People write blogs to share information, keep an online journal, or connect with people with similar interests. This blog is about sharing things I’ve learnt about learning.

Why blogs are great for students: You can find blogs related to your courses, about studying, and about your interests. They are a great way to keep up to date with new developments, get insights and learn new things. Because the information is in short doses it’s quick to read and easy to remember.

You can also start to build connections with people in your area of interest by reading blogs and adding useful comments, and by blogging yourself.

How to find blogs:

1. Use Google’s blogsearch
2. Look at technorati
3. Once you find a blogger you like, follow their blogroll (a list of blogs they read & recommend) & other blogs they quote.

I absolutely recommend that you find a selection of good blogs in the topics you’re studying, and about general study skills.

Once you’re following a few blogs, you’ll find you don’t want to check a dozen websites every day – so the next post will explain “RSS feeds” and “feed readers”, which allow you see new posts from all your blogs in one place.

For more information about blogs, here’s a great video explanation of what they are and why they’re useful from commoncraft.

Enjoy!