AICTE plans open-book exam format

AICTE plans open-book exam format

PUNE: It is time to change the way students as well teachers look at examinations as the All Indian Council of Technical Education (AICTE), in its new examination reforms policy, has recommended an 'open book' format of assessment for engineering colleges.

Thus, engineering students at most colleges are likely to write the open book examinations from 2019 onward.

"While we have recommended the open book format, it has to be understood that it will be one of the methods of testing and would not be implemented as a blanket method," said Prof Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE.

He added, "Some of the universities might be allowed to conduct the open book examinations for their internal assessments. At some autonomous institutions that have a comparatively lesser number of students, this format might be a huge success for all examinations. For the routine big university-level examinations though, it might not work out that effectively, we need to decide according to these various factors."

Sahasrabudhe said for certain open-ended topics and questions, an open book examination is the best. "There are some topics that require students to use a wide range of formulae, theorems, etc. Open book tests come in handy here, as students do not have to learn everything by-heart. They, instead, can focus on the reasoning and problem-solving part," he added.

On the one hand, the entrance to the medical courses is being made stricter and tougher every year. It was questioned whether this is an attempt to save the sinking ship of engineering colleges as well as an attempt to help engineering students get through. However, experts have said that if the standard of the questions is maintained, open book tests actually prove to be more difficult than the closed-book ones.

"More than 'open book', an 'open notebook' test would be of a greater help in the evaluation," said Prof Dr Anand Bhalerao, Principal and Dean, Bharati Vidyapeeth University College of Engineering.

"If the students attend their lectures, they will have their notes, which they could refer while answering the examination. This will also encourage more students to sit in class. Also, as far as the open book examinations are concerned, teachers will ask intelligent questions, solutions to which would not be readily available in the books. So, only if the student has the concepts clear, they will be able to find out solutions in the given textbooks," Bhalerao said.

Durgesh Mangeshkar of IITian's Prashikshan Kendra (IIT-P) said, "Finding answers in a book while answering examination is actually more difficult than it seems. In a closed-book examination, questions are more information-based or memory-based. In an open book format, questions asked need a reasoning process that goes beyond books. If the quality of questions asked is kept high, this format will actually bring out the real talent in students, as it will provoke them to think or reason. But if not, then it might as well deteriorate the quality of engineering education."

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