Would this happen at a university?

Question

Types of things that happen at my community college.

I've had one math professor who lets you bring a cheatsheet to every exam - one piece of paper, front and back, for you to write anything on.

Another math professor lets you bring formula sheets to the exam so you don't need to memorize them. You need to know how to use them though.

I've had a history professor who gives you 5 essay questions 2 weeks before the exam. Two of them, word for word, will be the ones on your exam. It does force you learn all the possible ques though. In the same course, there was a textbook, but you didn't need to touch it as long as you went to class and took good notes.

I've had a psychology professor whose final is composed of nothing but questions from previous quizzes.

All these profs are experienced, so its not like they're rooks out of school.

Answer 1

I worked at a community college as an instructor, and I never did any of these things. Seems you got lucky with your pick of professors. I think the same types of things go on at universities, but not as often - they are more rigorous because you are dealing with tenure-track professors who are doing research and get pressured to teach courses to a certain level. Most community college professors (except for some) are adjuncts.

Answer 2

This does happen sometimes at the university level (I went to UCLA). I had some finals that were open-note or open-book, or even with possible questions listed ahead of time.

The trick is in how the professor writes the question. Even if you have certain information in front of you (the math formula, the history dates, etc), you still need to be able to put it together to form an intelligent response, to show the whys and hows behind the fact. The professor grades you more on the quality of your answer and your thoughts than your recitation of facts.

Answer 3

I graduated from a top 25 university with my BA and experienced basically all of those things. Had a professor that allowed you to write as much as you could on a single note card and use that on the exam, had more than one history professor who gave you the questions in advance (actually had one of those in grad school as well, believe it or not), and had a final that was composed of questions from the midterms. In sum: yes. Those things happen even at the best universities.

Answer 4

Yes, these things do happen at colleges. I am a college graduate and have seen all this - cheat sheets, even books, questions from previous homeworks or quizzes or notes. All these profs are experienced and smart, they will make the question paper in such a way that inspite of all these helpful resources, you still have to use your brain to do well.
So, dont think that having all these is sufficient to clear the exam, you still have to study.

Answer 5

I go to a four year university and I have seen some of the things that you are talking about. The class that allowed me to bring a cheat sheet in was a pretty hard class. Even with the cheat sheet I only had a B average over all of the tests. He wanted the answers with certain key phrases in it. In preparation of the cheat sheet we learned the material that we were being tested on.

Answer 6

Well i have one science professor that allows us to bring formulas to the exams and he's the head of the science department.

Answer 7

In my experience, it all depends on the instructor. I have had some that let us use the cheat sheets for regular exams, but never on the finals. I have had some that didn't let us use them for anything...it's best to just ask your instructors what they will let you do.

You get 100% of what you don't ask for. :-)

Answer 8

Yes. This happens. =)

I didn't drop out because of it. I dropped out because I still couldn't handle it.

<3

But at most community colleges, this really doesn't happen. When I went to community colleges, it was harder.

Answer 9

my chum defined this style of ragging occurred of their college wherein all juniors have been instructed to convey jointly on terrace of boys hostel, get completely bare and piss from the terrace to the floor.....;-)