Today in schools, students are expected to remember the most minuscule facts about a topic that might not even be a question on their test, and they’re expected to do this for seven or eight classes. This isn’t preparing them for the real world in any way. When they graduate, they aren’t going to need to know what a parabola is or what happened in India in the year 1417. What they will know is how to use critical thinking, problem-solving and analysis skills. They’ll need to know how to use their resources.
Critical/cognitive thinking is the mental process involved in knowing, learning, understanding and remembering things, encompassing functions like attention, memory, language, and reasoning. This means it falls hand in hand with active recollection, which both make it so we think of a certain thing we learned to go find the answer. It’s not that the students should have fully open-book tests, but I believe it would be beneficial for them to at the bare minimum have a limited set of notes that they can look through to help them remember what the answer would be.
Incorporating limited notes into assessments can support cognitive development by encouraging active recall and the application of learned information, which in turn reinforces effective study skills. As stated in an article by Beyond The Worksheet, notes in a quiz aren’t just about referencing information. It teaches students how to search for relevant details, reflect on the material they’ve learned, and apply that information meaningfully. It’s a subtle way of helping them improve study habits, encouraging them to organize their thoughts, categorize information, and find solutions to problems. Essentially, they are learning how to study effectively, which is a crucial skill for their future academic success. And when they get to these tests, they’re able to think back to what they learned instead of just memorizing facts and forgetting them a month later.
Having limited sets of notes on these tests will also simulate the real-world experiences they will encounter outside of high school and college. There is never a moment we are without our phone- time, calculator, Google, books, weather, everything is at our fingertips. But even though we can just look up an answer point blank, that doesn’t mean we have to. Having our students practice their active recalling skills now would prepare them for the future where they could remember details of what they want to look up and go from there. Instead of fully relying on their technology.
According to Dangerously Irrelevant, If we permitted students to instantly look up any low-level factual recall knowledge – like we adults do daily in the real world – this would force schools to employ better, more complex assessments that got at higher levels of understanding. In most professional settings, people have access to resources and can collaborate with others. Allowing similar conditions during tests better prepares students for future work environments
Along with improving the way students think, having limited sets of notes on tests can help lower their test anxiety. It helps by providing a sense of control and reducing the fear of forgetting information, especially when students are familiar with the material. As stated in Psychology Today, when students know they have access to notes, they may feel less pressure to memorize everything perfectly, reducing the feeling of being overwhelmed and increasing their sense of control during the test.
The availability of notes can lower the anxiety associated with the fear of forgetting important information or concepts, allowing students to focus on understanding and applying the material rather than memorizing it word for word. They can recall the important details and find the information from there. Students who have notes readily available during a test may also be more likely to use effective study strategies, such as creating outlines, summarizing key concepts, and actively reviewing their notes, which can lead to better preparation and reduced anxiety.
With how fast-paced our lives are moving and how much society is changing, it would be silly not to upgrade our schools as well. By modernizing our tests, we can better prepare these students for the rest of their lives, whether that means college or their life after school. We’d also be able to lower the ever-rising test anxieties we see so often in our classrooms. If we don’t try to modernize our classrooms, our students will likely be ill-prepared for what comes next in their lives.
