TL;DR:
Open-book exams test whether you can use material fast, not whether you can read it for the first time.
Tab your book, build a one-page summary index of where things are, and write out formulas yourself.
Practise with the clock running, so you learn how long a lookup really takes.
An open-book exam sounds easy, and that is exactly why people fail it. They arrive with the textbook and no plan, and spend the hour flipping pages and running out of time. The questions are usually designed so that the book alone does not give the answer. It gives the raw material, and you have to know what to look for.
Watch out: Check your teacher's rules for what may be brought: textbook only, handwritten notes, a laptop, tabs or sticky notes. Follow them exactly.
What changes in an open-book exam
You do not need to memorise everything, but you do need to know the material well enough to know what to look up. The scarce resource is time. Every minute in the index is a minute not solving the problem, so you prepare to make lookups fast.
What you need
The textbook or approved notes.
Sticky tabs in a few colours, if allowed.
Your notes and homework.
Past questions or practice problems.
The steps
Decide what you will look up: Formulas, definitions, constants, tables, and worked examples of tricky problem types.
Tab the book: Use a colour for each kind: formulas, definitions, examples. Label the tab with a few words.
Build a summary index: One page: topic, page number, and a line on what is there.
Write the formulas out yourself: One page of formulas, in your own handwriting, with conditions.
Practise under time: Do a practice set with the clock on, using only what you will have in the exam.
Worked example: tabbing a textbook and building a summary index
Say the exam is a 90-minute physics test with six equally weighted questions. That gives 90 ÷ 6 = 15 minutes per question. If a question needs three lookups and each takes two minutes, that is 6 minutes just flipping, which leaves 9 minutes to solve. If each lookup takes 30 seconds, the three cost 3 × 0.5 = 1.5 minutes, which leaves 13.5. The index is what buys those 7.5 minutes.
Here is part of the summary index. The page numbers are made up for the example.
Topic | Page | What is there | Tab colour |
|---|---|---|---|
Constant acceleration | p. 38 | The three equations, with conditions | Yellow (formulas) |
Newton's laws | p. 96 | Free-body diagram steps | Yellow (formulas) |
Work and energy | p. 142 | Work-energy theorem, energy conservation | Yellow (formulas) |
Inclined plane example | p. 108 | Worked example with friction | Green (examples) |
Definitions: impulse, momentum | p. 171 | Key definitions | Blue (definitions) |
Constants and unit conversions | back cover | g, common conversions | Red (data) |
The index is one page, so you can see all of it at once. The tabs let you open the book to the right section in seconds. The formula page is written by you, so you have already seen each formula, and you know which ones need conditions.
Now practise. Take a past question, set a timer for 15 minutes, and solve it using only the index, the formula page and the tabbed book. Note how long each lookup took and fix the index where it was slow. Do this for three or four questions.
Writing your own formula page
Do not photocopy the book's formula list. Write it yourself, from memory first, then fix it against the book. Under each formula, add what the symbols mean, the units, and when it applies. For example, the constant acceleration equations only hold when acceleration is constant. That note can save you a wrong answer in the exam, because it stops you from using the formula in a situation where it fails.
What the exam will test
Open-book exams often use problems that do not match the book's examples, or ask you to explain why. Looking up a formula gives you nothing if you do not know when it applies. So spend most of your time on understanding and on problems, and use the book as a safety net. A good rule is to be able to solve a typical problem with the book closed, and use the book to check.
Making the index robust
Test the index on a friend or on yourself: pick a random question and see how fast you can find the matching page. If it takes more than half a minute, add a clearer name to the index or move the tab. Index entries should use the words you would think of during the exam, not the book's chapter titles. If you would think of it as "the friction thing", write "friction" in your index, even if the book calls it something else.
Mistakes to avoid
Assuming you can learn it during the exam.
Tabbing every page so that no tab stands out.
Copying the book's formulas without understanding their conditions.
Never timing yourself.
Bringing things your teacher has not allowed.
Your plan for this week
Check the rules for what you may bring.
Tab the book and build the index in one sitting.
Write the formula page from memory first, then check it against the book.
Do two timed practice questions and fix what was slow.
Frequently asked questions
Should I still study as if it were closed-book?
Yes, mostly. Knowing the material means fewer lookups, and the lookups you do make are for details, not for ideas.
Can I bring notes from a friend?
Only if your teacher's rules allow it. Your own notes are better anyway, because you know where things are.
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