"What? You don't take books with you when you take an open book exam?".

No, I "open book" all the time. That's where your little electronic devices come into play ...

When it comes to studying for a test, most people are accustomed to the idea that they need to PAY ATTENTION . They need to learn information that is not currently coming in through their senses, read something in a textbook or coursepack and write down what they just learned from write my essay.

The average student's strategy for this involves: 

1. picking up their class materials and
2. sitting at their desk or table...or on their bed laying back while they review the material.

Notice how much of this process is paying attention?

Now, all that is about to change.

For your next exam (and I'm talking tomorrow's or next week's), forget all of the above and instead:

1. Pick up your class materials
2. Sit at a desk or table
3. Use any electronic device you wish.

It can be an iPod or MP3 player, Blackberry®, iPhone®, Nintendo DS™ (short for "Detective Pikachu" ... not actually sure what it is), iPad™ , laptop computer...the options are limitless! Just make sure that whatever you do choose has some games on it...for obvious reasons ;)

From this point forward, when you get ready for an exam, just open up any PDFs / Powerpoint slides / Word docs / whatever documents or files are available to you in your course and start going through the information.

You don't have to pay attention at all! It's like taking a book exam, except for two key differences:

1. There aren't any questions (though that can be remedied if you're feeling ambitious!)
2. You don't have to take anything with you when essay writing service leave.

Ah! That second point is rather important...you say? Well, I'm glad you noticed ;)

A little known fact about open book exams ... there aren't actually any requisite facts to know . Contrary to popular belief, most tests don't ask us what we already know; they test our ability to make connections between what we DO know. Please realize that I just wrote a sentence and used the word "test" two different ways in relation to standardized testing (please don't try this at home, kids). The fact is that you have probably sat through many tests where the most important thing was not what you knew coming into it, but how did once you were there .

Why bother with taking notes during an open book exam then? In my opinion, because it's so much easier than figuring out how to take an open book exam; we're creatures of habit after all! Plus, if you want to get really fancy with your studying and test-taking techniques, these strategies can be worked into your overall study strategy. For instance, maybe for some classes it makes sense to spend the first week or two doing nothing but preparing for your upcoming exams; then, once you know what information is going to be covered in class and on the test, you can shift into a mode of review where you concentrate on making connections between the new material and that which you already have. You might even let yourself peek at those notes from time to time so that when it does come time for an exam, the process will feel more like free recall than cramming (essay writer recommend listening to music while doing this ...).

This isn't something I recommend doing all of the time; however, if there's a subject that has been nagging you throughout the semester (or longer?), taking some extra time with these of the next couple of exams can be a great confidence booster and help keep the frustration level down.

And if you don't have any tests coming up for the next month or so, just remember to try your hardest during recitations...I'm sure that'll go over really well ;)