India Broyles, Peggy Cyr, & Neil Korsen.
Medical Teacher
August 2005, Vol. 27, Issue #5, pg. 456-462.
Review by: Linda Heun, Ph.D. <lheun@aacom.org>
The authors explored the benefits of using open-book tests in the final clerkship examination, specifically asking and discovering:
- Are there differences in student achievement? -quantitative methodology revealed significantly improved achievement
- Are tension and stress reduced? -qualitative methodology revealed stress reduction
- How do students prepare? -qualitative methodology revealed that study processes reflected individual learning styles and a focus on the structure of the text to enable efficient use
- How do students use the text during exams? -qualitative methodology revealed that successful students used the text only after all questions were answered
- How do students feel about open-book exams? -qualitative methodology revealed that students were very positive
Based on the research results, an open-book examination process was used for all clerkships with the following recommendations to students:
In preparation:
- flag important pages with sticky notes that have one-word descriptions of topics
- consider different colored tabs by topic
- underline or highlight words or concepts sparingly to avoid distractions
- know the Table of Contents and the Index
- know how chapters are organized
- know the information in text boxes, graphs, and case studies
During the test:
- check the clock
- don't rely on the book for every answer
- if you are 60-70% sure, don't use the text; mark the answer to enable verifying
- for items you don't know, make a brief search for the answer, then move on and come back
For more information about this article and author(s), visit the Medical Teacher website.
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