10/26   Ugh, got a closed book closed notes exam, but I can bring ONE
        sheet of double side notes. Does that mean I can bring any sheet,
        like a 20"X16" double sided sheet? I'm not trolling.
        \_ bring this: http://www.casting-couch.com/tour/0036-11/images/010.jpg
        \_ Actually, it means that you should go to crate and barrel and
           purchase a large roll of butcher paper and xerox the entire
           book onto it and then bring it with you. DUH!
           \_ Microfiche.
        \_ hand-written? Or can you type it up and use abbreviations and
           then use a Xerox machine to reduce it? That's what I did for
           my poli-sci class. They gave the 8 essay questions beforehand
           and said 5 of these will be on the exam and you get to choose
           any 3 of them to answer. But can bring one 8.5x11" piece of paper.
           I prepared all my answers before the exam and spent the entire
           exam just copying text into my bluebook. Filled up the entire
           bluebook plus the back inside cover.
        \_ but in reality, how many of you used those sheets?  Maybe
           all you needed was the comfort in having that sheet, and the
           trouble not having to memorize a few number of formulas.
             \_ there's only one occasion when bringing that piece of
                crap actually helped me.  on my two physics 7b midterms,
                it just so happened that the exact example of a refraction
                problem copied out of a schaum's outline was on the test,
                (except for the numbers of course), and on another, the
                I had the equation for some Hydrogen  quantum bs equation
                on my cheat.  it was awesome b/c I way above mean on both,
                beating out the nerds who usually kicked my ass on exams.
                unfortunately, i got totally fucked on my final, but
                the glory was fun while it lasted.  nothing like a good ego
                boost during the dark physics 7 series days.  you should
                always go for closed book since the effort to
                memorize stuff is minimal, prevents from getting totally
                trashed on an open-book which is supposed to be "easy."
                \_ Open book can be easier depending on the prof. Olander,
                   in NE and Komvopolus (sp?), Pruitt in ME, Gronsky,
           tested, make it close book. This one or two pages only stuff
                   Weber in MSE gave open book exams that were pretty
                   easy. Their exams would have been next to impossible
                   had they been closed book since there was always too
                   much to memorize. ----ranga
           \_ I usually found that creating the "cheat" sheet helped me
              more than the actual cheat sheet. Though in some ME classes
              the formulas came in handy. ----ranga
        \_ These are my favorite exam rules.  No having to book-flip to
           search for stuff, and no memorizing of stupid formulae.  Just
           put down the key stuff in the class which let you figure anything
           else out and don't worry.  --PeterM
           \_ The other one (which I personally like) is having created
              or extracted a good 1-2 page appendix (EG, the back inside
              cover of P&H for 61c), which is included with the exam.
              A little more work in some respects, but very useful for

              the students without the chaos of an open book test. -nweaver
        \_ This is my absolute LEAST favorite exam rules. Look, if you want
           to make a hard exam testing concepts, gimme open book/open notes
           and I'll bookmark pages, mark-up lecture notes, whatever. If you
           want to give an easier exam where some memorization is being
           tested, make it closed book. This one or two pages only stuff
           just turns the whole thing into some game where people try and
           cram as much onto one sheet as possible... and the prof thinks
           he can ask open-book-type questions because "you should have
           written that important fact down." Grrr... I hate them.
                \_ the other option which i liked better were the classes
                   that gave everyone the same cheat sheet attached to the
                   exam.  why make people memorize a ton of equations and
                   why be unfair about cheat sheets?  everybody knows ahead
                   of time what they'll be provided with and everybody has
                   access to all the same info during the exam...
           \_ I agree.  I refused to play the game and brought in 2 pages
              of notes with huge handwriting.  When the TA gave me trouble,
              I told him to compare the number of bits on my two sheets with
              the number of bits on the cram sheet of the person in front of
              me with microscopic handwritting.  The TA gave up eventually.
              \_ Actually I'd have walked up to you and said, "Which page
                 do you want?  You can only keep one."  And if you kept
                 going on your two page thing I'd just fail you.  Seriously.
                 Unless you seemed to have a genuine, non-renegade,
                 non-protest reason for bringing in two pages. But anyways,
                 this was just to balance your remarks.
                 \_ Because I have a vision problem and you're discriminating
                    against me and everyone like me.  -!not the two sheet person
           \_ Anyone who *needs* to bring in a sheet with teeny-tiny little
              writing on it is screwed anyway.  I handwrote all my cheatsheets
              in normal writing and usually had about half a side left.
                  \_ i don't think most people really need them.  it's
                     just an OK but rather time-consuming way to study for
                     an exam as you are writing the notes.  keep in mind
                     that cal professors in engineering are mostly looking
                     for understanding, and not the amount of crap that
                     you blindly memorized.
                     \_ Depends on the department. Some profs. in MSE
                        really were interesed in whether or not your could
                        memorize stuff from the book.