Steve Luzader mentioned that more success is achieved through knowledge than
through the ability to look things up.
In Chemical Engineering school, I experienced a variety of exams (instructor
dependent) including no crib sheets, open book, open notes, 3x5 cards, and
five 8x10 sheets of paper for reference during the exam. (One instructor
even suggested we could bring five or six books to read in case we couldn't
work the exam!)
I often prepared the materials, but rarely referred to them during the exam.
When I took my first job in manufacturing, I was called one night to solve a
problem which had shut down a process which cost us thousands of dollars per
minute to have non-operational. I was able to get a stop-gap solution to
the problem with a little calculus, physics, and chemistry knowledge and
application of the factor-label method in under 10 minutes. No repairs were
necessary to keep the process working while we worked on a long-term
solution to the problem. As an engineer, I was not applauded for this quick
response, but the sum of many such quick decisions helped to keep my
department profitable. Profitable department heads get promotions. Many
students find this anecdote convincing.
Tom Russ
Brookstone School, Inc
Columbus, GA