I heard through this system professors allow students to do a lot of take home exams. I understand the exams would usually be more difficult than in-class exams, but I get test anxiety very easily so this would be a great help. Does anyone know how often this system is actually implemented as an engineering student?
john963red My son is a sophomore. He just started getting take home tests this semester. He does say they are definataly harder because they know you have all the material. The material is in his notes, but you really need to know the material well to find it on time. He did say time was a factor for most though. He found it much easier the classes once he started doing study groups in other dorms with other kid in his classes. He wished he did it sooner. It is very collaborate between the engineering students plus they have TA sessions. He is very happy with the way this semester is going. He also has nervousness taking tests, but is now seems to be doing much better with it.
My daughter is not in engineering but she has a lot of take home tests. Many are papers/essays that have to be turned in online by a certain time. Other are set questions. Once she opens/starts the test, she has to finish it by the deadline. In one of her psychology classes, her most recent take home test was designing test questions over the subject and answering them.
For mechanical engineering, a lot of the upper level courses had take home tests. It’s not unheard of for all exams, including the final exam, of a particular class to be taken outside of class. Not all of the take home tests are substantially more difficult than in-class tests either. Some take home tests are still closed book, closed notes, just like an in-class test. The only difference is you take the test outside of class. I will say that a lot of the take home exams tend to be longer than in-class exams, since the professor doesn’t have to be present to proctor the exam, and can therefore create a 3 hour exam without putting a dent in their (or a TA’s) busy schedule.