A quick look at the open-book methodo-logy illustrates why. In this mode, students are informed of possible topics for testing some months before their exam. They thus have time to read up thoroughly on these areas and prepare to answer analytical questions rather than mechanical queries. Such questions, designed to teach students how to mine material thoroughly, encourage analytical thought, original perspectives and creative linking of different sorts of information in examinees' minds. What these cancel out is rote learning or getting through coursework using guide books that break subjects into technical question-answer sets, not open fields of knowledge students learn to navigate with skills and practice.
Open-book testing is decidedly a step in the right direction - one which the CBSE should follow the whole way. For critics who prefer the traditional chants of rote learning, get real. Current data shows rote is doing very little for India's learning. Despite our chest-thumping over producing doctors and engineers by the barrel, a recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study shows how Indian educational standards have slipped so low, we now rank second-last from the world's weakest - one step above Kyrgyzstan. This, when some of our best students took the PISA test conducted over 73 countries.
