To all people having comments to this subject: Hi!
Being retired, I do not give tests anymore, but I well remember having
had similar experiences in the past. One opf the main questions is about
"open" or "closed-book" tests. I think they serve a different purpose.
To make my point: suppose that in an elementary physics course I give
a test asking questions on quantum mechanics (which the students don't
know). But the place of the test is the library, where students have
access to all the books containing all the needed information. They
would still perform dismally, because THEY DON'T KNOW THE SUBJECT.
Another true story, which happened to me: I was teaching a coordinated
course, where common tests were (in spite of my opinion) multiple
choice. One of these tests I had to prepare for my section only, and
in order to save time in thinking and writing 4 stupid answers for
each question, I simply told them to find the correct answer by themselves.
One students, who by the way did very poorly, wrote me an irate addendum,
on how unfair I was in changing the format of the test in the last
moment, BECAUSE EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT STUDENTS MUST PREPARE DIFFERENTLY
FOR THESE TWO TYPES OF TEST. iN A MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST, THE OBJECT IS
JUST TO GUESS THE ANSWER OF SEEMEINGLY HIGHEST PROPABILITY.
No further comments. Regards, Emilio