So you're excited to learn that you will be having a take home test for your final exam in one of your classes. "Piece of cake," you say. "How much more simple can it be, taking the test with my textbooks and notes on hand? Sweet!"
Hold on there. Take home tests are definitely not the easy A experience many students assume them to be. When a professor would assign a take home exam when I was a student, I
would have to do everything I could to stop myself from groaning out
loud while many other students were smiling and happy about it. Here's the inside scoop about take home tests.
Take home tests tend to be harder, longer, and more detailed than in class tests. The grading standards tend to be much higher for essay and short answer tests in particular because of the amount of time you've had to prepare them. Because of these factors, avoid the procrastination temptation. You do not want to have the horrified feeling of sitting down to throw together your take home exam the night before it's due only to realize there's far more work to do there than you thought.
Treat essay questions as seriously as you would a research paper. Once you've read each question, go through your textbook and notes to flag the material that will help you write your answer. If you have multiple essay questions on your exam, multicolored sticky notes are helpful. Outline the answers to essay questions before you start writing them. Proofread your answers several times and make the writing as clear and concise as possible.
Do not collaborate with other students unless your professor or instructor specifically tells you it is okay to do so. To do otherwise is academic dishonesty, which has dire consequences, not only for your grade on the test or in the class, but possibly for your educational record as a whole. I think many students would be surprised at how readily those of us who teach can detect when students have been working together on something when they should not have been. Even if you are given the okay to consult other students on your take home exam, don't assume that means it's fine to submit the same or substantially the same answers. That is the specific form of academic dishonesty called plagiarism, which also carries serious consequences.
If you put enough time and effort into completing a take home test, you're more likely to get good results. Be ready for it to be tougher than the average test and you'll be ahead of the game.
