Here’s What’s Wrong With Online Tests
The huge problem with the closed-note test
I just took a difficult midterm for my Intel Assembly Language class. It covered four chapters of the textbook and had a string of challenging coding questions which were less about problem-solving and more about memorization and hexadecimal arithmetic skill. I scored an 88%. Not my best but there’s nothing wrong with that score.
I’m proud not to have succumbed to temptations in the forms of the Google search bar and the eTextbook which were just one click away the whole time. While I would take the test the same way over again, I also know that many of my classmates are likely to have opted into the easier and less honest strategy of googling answers.
It seems deeply wrong that while I probably have studied more thoroughly, and engaged more in the class, my less studious fellows will perhaps be scoring higher. I see it as unjust that my performance on this test may be viewed as either average or poor while those going against the teacher’s instruction not to use notes will be elevated to the top of the class. Though I am far from being slow, running a race against people pumped up on steroids is a less than satisfying experience. There simply is no way to compete fairly against people with access to billions of algorithmically sorted results, not to mention…
