<p>I wasn’t talking about doing it before the test, I was talking about during it but before you start after you get the exam and the proctor has said you may start. And no, I don’t think writing anything down even during a History test would be cheating. My diff eq class and vector calc class had equation sheets but not every derived formula. Memorizing some equations is a good shortcut because you usually don’t have the time to derive them. Say what you like about memorizing but a hell of a lot of different types of classes require it. Jotting down notes before you actually take the test about stuff is a good way to jog your memory and have it there for reference. This is something I recommend to test-takers as long your doing it within the legal time restraints</p>