Simple transcription

You will not be merely copying from textbooks or notes to your examination script. If you do, you will get no credit for it. The same would hold true even if you were not, strictly speaking, copying but recalling from memory. With the resource materials made available to you, you are expected to do more than reproduce them.

A soft option

An OBE is anything but a soft option. It will not be testing simple recall. Rather, it will test the ability to process and use information for problem-solving, and to deliver well-structured and well-presented arguments and solutions.

Whereas in traditional examination conditions some credit might be given for display of knowledge, there will be no reason for doing so when the knowledge is given. Nor will you enjoy the benefit of the doubt, e.g. lapse of memory under stress, should there be factual inaccuracies.

Marking tends to be more rigorous. What might be considered as a good answer in traditional examination conditions might be judged only mediocre when it is taken into account that you are given a handicap as it were, with reference materials readily available to you.

That there is no need to learn anything since all the answers are in the book is a fatal delusion. While it is true that you do not need to commit some factual information to memory, you need to understand and be familiar with your materials in order to locate and use what is appropriate. Experience suggests that while the materials are there for you to refer to, you need to be able to use them effectively and efficiently if you were to perform well.

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