Does open book exam systems make sense for schools?

Replies

• 

  Anoop Kumar

  Do people cheat in CBSE also 😲 .
  Books are allowed when nothing is asked theoretical and mostly you have to write your own thesis (kind of) even very hard to copy from other. If you forget any thing you can just refer.
  Now, up-to 12th exams all the question can be find on 2-3 books easily.
  I am not sure what kind of question will be asked in History or geography exam.
  In physics/maths also mostly question are based on other methods to solve.
• 

  Rajni Jain

  People do and go to jail as well for cheating in CBSE 😁
  
  Again I had mentioned that this time CBSE had proposed that they will be give a course material four months before the examination, and students are allowed to carry only those course materials. Also interestingly as it's proposed for 9th / 11th class only, it is expected that the complete paper will be out of the course material only.
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  Anoop Kumar

  So students are not allowed to make note on those material ?
  Do they have to check out each and every page for cheat sheets? 😨.
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  Ankita Katdare

  I think that this might lessen the chances of questions that demand lengthy descriptive answers appearing in the exams.
  Those are totally nonsense anyway. Don't open books mean less rot-learning and producing on paper mechanism?
• 

  lovebox

  The phrase - 'Open Text-Based Assessment' (OTBA) may seem confusing at first. People might think that it is like allowing students to carry text-books in to the examination. This is not the case actually.
  CBSE has introduced OTBA to provide multiple modes of assessment to cater to the varied abilities and individual strength of the students. Everyone has his or her own pace of learning. The main objective of the OTBA is to focus on analytical skills while moving slightly away from traditional memorization.
  Here are a few highlights of the system proposed by the CBSE:
  

  • The question paper will be as usual with a new additional dedicated section of 10 marks for OTBA.
    • For class IX : 90 marks traditional pattern of questions + 10 marks for OTBA section = 100 marks in total.
    • For class XI : 60 marks traditional pattern of questions + 10 marks for OTBA section + 30 marks for laboratory practicals = 100 marks in total.

  Prior to the examination:
  

  • The students will be provided with textual material a few months before the commencement of the exams.
    
  • The textual material will be related to chosen concepts taken from the syllabi.
    
  • The textual material may be in the form of an article, a case study, a diagram, a concept/ mind map, a picture or a cartoon, problem/situation based on the concepts taught to the students during their course.
    
  • Along with the textual material the students will be provided with some sample questions which will require higher order thinking skills and some of which may be subjective, creative and open ended.
    
  • The goal of providing these sample questions to the students is to guide the students in developing the thought-process required to solve these types of questions.
  • The text/case studies are designed to promote active participation of students requiring them to engage in active learning process through discussion, analysis, self-reflection and critical thinking.
    
  • The teachers are expected to read, discuss and analyze the open text material with respect to:
    • their objectives
      
    • concepts involved
      
    • application of concepts to situation
      
    • description and further explanation of the case/problem
      
    • higher order thinking skills involved
      
    • analysis with different perspectives
  • They should then assign them to students in groups for further analysis and discussions so that they can read, and understand it through discussions, view it from different perspectives, brainstorm main ideas in class or even do further research outside the class.
    
  • The teachers should guide students and provide feedback at regular intervals about their performance during the completion of assigned activities.
    
  • Since real-life cases or situations are complex and open to different opinions, teachers must be prepared for innovative and open answers from students.

  During the examination:
  

  • The textual material supplied earlier will be printed again as part of the question paper and thus will be available while answering the questions. Hence, there is no need of carrying the Open Text material to the examination centre.
    
  • The questions will be based on one of the two themes of open text material that had been provided to students in advance.
    
  • The questions under OTBA Section will neither be directly based on the text material supplied, nor will they be replicas of the sample questions provided earlier with the textual material. Rather they will test the student's ability to apply the learnt concepts to the situation given in the open text material.
    
  • The students will be tested on their ability to comprehend, analyze and interpret the given situation and offer suggestions and opinions on the given issues based on their knowledge of concepts.

  Assessment of the answers:
  

  • Based on the text material/case study supplied to students, the answers will be assessed on the extent to which students were able to demonstrate the following in their answers:
    • Understand and apply the concepts to the situational problems
      
    • Suggest and bring out appropriate solution/s to the problem/situation
      
    • Come up with innovative opinions/suggestions.
      
    • Deep analysis based on a wide range of perspectives

  The main objective of introducing this element is to provide opportunities to students to apply theoretical concepts to a real life scenario by encouraging active and group learning in the class.
  This is an innovative step taken by the CBSE and should help the students in exploring the higher levels of learning through their creative skills.
• 

  Jeffrey Arulraj

  OBT are not that easy to clear as all imagine. Books must be used as refernce tools and lot of brain is needed to even understand the question.
  
  PS: If ou have not touched your book through out the year you will not even know which book to refer to find the hint for the answer of the question.
  
  This is one good education system but using it wisely is also difficult