Most tests that I took in college were essentially open-book. Not all of them, but definitely more than half. They could have been take-home if(f) the professors trusted students not to use the internet during an exam.
In the math and computing classes, professors structured the questions in layers that tested different concepts. You could always have a double-sided "cheat sheet", and some professors let students bring in the whole textbook for time-constrained exams. It took far too long to "brute-force" more than one or two questions.
In the liberal arts classes, you were tested more on critical thinking and contextual questions. You needed to understand concepts at more than a surface level to make compelling arguments about how they related to each other, and you wouldn't be able to develop that understanding for many topics over the course of an hour, even if you have the primary material in front of you.
We weren't allowed to bring anything with a radio, but forcing students to take exams in complete isolation always felt odd to me. It's pretty rare to need to do actual work in a "clean-room" environment.
In the math and computing classes, professors structured the questions in layers that tested different concepts. You could always have a double-sided "cheat sheet", and some professors let students bring in the whole textbook for time-constrained exams. It took far too long to "brute-force" more than one or two questions.
In the liberal arts classes, you were tested more on critical thinking and contextual questions. You needed to understand concepts at more than a surface level to make compelling arguments about how they related to each other, and you wouldn't be able to develop that understanding for many topics over the course of an hour, even if you have the primary material in front of you.
We weren't allowed to bring anything with a radio, but forcing students to take exams in complete isolation always felt odd to me. It's pretty rare to need to do actual work in a "clean-room" environment.