Closed Book - Open Stress Exams
From the The Big Time Blog
by Rami Kaibni
Managing any project successfully is all about Team Work combined with years of Accrued Expertise. It is an asset to have an educational background that compliments your field of expertise but "education" without "experience" is like an "arrow" without a "bow." You can never make a perfect shot with a temporary arrow unless you have a permanent bow called: "Life's Experience." Remember, you can never teach experience but you can always teach from experience.
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Do you believe that closed book exams where you have to go to a center to sit for the exam is the best way to offer and run certification exams ?
I personally think that it is not practical at all especially that we are now in a era of advanced technology.
Why Closed Book ?
In real life, if you encounter an issue or you forgot something, you can google it and/or refer to your library for seeking information. How is this any different for an exam that is based on your experience in a certain domain ? Why does it need to be a closed book ?
If the exam is experience based, then I suspect that no matter how many references the candidate has open in front of him / her, they won't be able to complete the exam within the given time frame if they do not deeply understand the material and have solid experience in that domain.
Why the Stress ?
The stress of taking a day off, reaching to a testing center, get checked as if you are crossing boarders has a negative impact in so many ways.
Does the Closed Book / In-Person Strategy add credibility to the certification ?
It might but in my humble opinion it will be very minimal. The credibility of a certificate stems from:
- Strict Application Pre-requisites & Audits.
- Education required for Renewal.
- Exam Difficulty & Passing Mark.
- Exam Fees (In a sense that if fees are high, you wil need to study hard enough to make sure you do not fail)
What made initiate this blog is that yesterday, I sat for my PSM II Exam. It was an online exam (30 Questions - 1.5 Hours) and I passed but I assure you that I barely had enough time to finish the exam and did not have any chance to open any reference book as even if I did, it won't be of any added value if I did not understand the material in depth and had experience in that domain.
People might say, 30 Questions in 1.5 Hours is very reasonable. Well, let me tell you something: You can't take the number of questions as a measure for time when you get a question with 4 or 5 choices and you need to analyze each choice in details in order to conclude the best answer - The questions were much more difficult and tough than most of the exams I've ever written as it tested my knowledge & experience beyond any text book. On the other hand, I had the luxury to do the exam on a weekend out of my own place and in my own comfort zone which makes a big difference.
When the exam is mostly experience based, what would you prefer:
Closed Book - In Person 200 Questions Exam
OR
Online Test with X Number of Question that truly tests your knowledge depth and experience ?
Many highly reputable organization like scrum.org offer online exams & I think PMI too are heading towards that direction in terms of giving candidates the option of sitting for the proctored exams online from home (With certain rules and regulations). They implemented this on for the CAPM Exam which was a great initiative.
What is your opinion on this ?
Posted on: March 19, 2018 07:15 PM |
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Great article Rami.
If you are allowed an open book test and you take advantge of the book it will demonstrates that you know where to look for the information in the book and get the additional clarification needed to answer the question.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Thanks Drake - This is exactly right.
You might need to refer to a book because you forgoet a terminology or you may need to google the meaning of something but if you have a 100 books open in front of you and you have no experience and in depth knowledge, that won't help you or it might help you solve 10% of the exam then you will run out of time.
It is true that it might be open book and online but you are operating within boundaries:
1- The boundary of Time Limit.
2- The boundary that it is experience based.
3- The boundary of having to pay the exam fees everytime you fail.
These are good points Rami. Closed-book exams test memory more than skill and experience. And as you say, when we confront issues in real life, the book of life is open to us. Prince2 and many other certification bodies have the right idea (at least in their practitioner exam) to make it open book. But people should bare in mind that an open-book exam can whittle the time away.
In today's world, we rely on technology to get information. I do agree that every now and then, I check the books because I forget a terminology or even the internet for a quick answer. There are a lot of information, certification that requires an in-depth knowledge and can be tedious to some people, whereas some it just comes naturally. the whole point is understanding how it works and how we can all improve.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
@Sante: That’s exactly right - Cheers
@Salvatore: Thanks for your input but I am not very sure I fully got what you’re trying to say. Can you ellaborate please.
I totally agree with you Rami that open book exams are tougher and require an in depth study as I have given few during my engineering.
But there are few more aspects which PMI and other organizations must thought off. For example what if 4-5 people sat along to solve one exam and there can be so many other ways to manipulate this. And that will harm the credibility of the certification.
Than there are exams which have live video feed broadcast, the issue with that is, there are regions/countries where the internet is not so good or they don't have internet at all (that's true). That means a lot of people will not be able to appear.
I will just quote an example, You must have attended a lot of online conferences (PMXPO is coming in a couple of days). If you follow the comments you would notice that a lot of people have complaint regarding no audio or no video, I think it is because of poor internet (most of the time).
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
@Najam: Thanks for your input. If you want to sit and solve an exam with a group, then good luck with finishing 50% of the exam :-)
As for the internet issues, this is exactly right amd that is why I mentioned making the online exam as an option. On the same comment, I also know some people who have interenet but do not having testing centers so they have to fly to another city. It goes both ways.
In an age where we have immediate access to vast amounts of information when we are at work, closed book exams make less and less sense. Rote memorization of details is unimportant in our regular work lives. Instead, exams should focus on the ability to synthesize available information and make causal determinations with data-driven decisions.
Drew Craig
Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard
Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Open book exams can be detrimental, causing unnecessary second guessing and time spent digging through the book.
It can go either way. Certainly, more options are helpful, especially for those who don't have a testing center nearby, or have many things going on and simply just need an option to sit when it works for them, even if it's 3am.
Markus Kopko
AI Enabler for Project & Program Mgmt | Founder PMotion.ai / The PM
AI Coach| PMotion.ai
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Great post, Mate.
I am total with you, and I guess PMI is on the right track now ...;)
Markus Kopko
AI Enabler for Project & Program Mgmt | Founder PMotion.ai / The PM
AI Coach| PMotion.ai
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
And congratulations on your achievement btw ... it seems that you are earning an additional credential each week currently ... ;)
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Nice post Rami,
I don't see the problem with in person with book, it is the case with PRINCE2. For online I'm not that clear. I understand some organization do it with camera ON.
I would love to have this option available because I have to travel a thousand km to get to nearest prometric center to appear in exam.
It is obvious that these systems should be established.
Muhammad Sadiq
Senior Network Engineer| IBI Group
Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Great article.
In my experience open book exams are more difficult as referencing the book during the exam results in loss of valuable time. While the stress factor in closed book exam is high. But still I would sit in closed book exam as it is easier to concentrate during it.
Anish Abraham
Privacy Program Manager| University of Washington
Auburn, Wa, United States
Good points, Rami and thanks for sharing.
I like the idea of open book but it's really time consuming digging through the book. Anyway it's always nice to have more options.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
@David: I totally agree with you.
@Andrew: This is probably one of the very few times where I have to disagree with you somehow. If someone has second guessing then that won't be any different in a closed book exam and if someone wants to spend time digging in the book, let it be, then it means they are not ready to sit for the exam - Very Simple.
On the other hand, if open book sounds like probably too much, at least organizations should allow aspirants to have with them two - three summary sheets for the exam (Just my thoughts). Even schools these days are replacing exams with projects.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
@Markus: Thanks a lot mate. Appreciate it - I am in the studying mode keeping my mind busy so I do not think about other personal stuff :-)
@Vincent: Thanks. I agree with you
@Najam: Won't that be great for a motivated person like you pursuing many certifications.
@Muthukrishnan: True, many are adopting those systems these days.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
@Muhammad: When you sit for an exam that is experience based, even if it is open book, you should be able to answer comfortably - Organizations do not invent the wheel with their questions. They tests your skills and level of understanding and experience. I agree that open book exams are much more difficult and for me it means something good.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
@Anish: Thanks - The whole idea of what I am talking about is that you should not use your book unless necessary if you know your stuff. If you want to use your book and dig into each question to find the answer for an experience based exam then:
1- You are not ready.
2- You won't find a good answer unless you know it yourself.
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