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Going "solo" to an exam with notes on my iPad

r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 3, 2008
3,612
76
Detroit
Tonight is the last meeting for a class I am taking. Our exams are open notes. For the previous exams, I brought thick notebooks of printouts that weigh a lot more than my iPad. Tonight, I'm leaving all the printouts at home and bringing just my iPad.

So what happens if the iPad goes cuckoo 3 minutes into the test? I still have a notebook computer along with me "just in case". I'll lug it to class and leave it under the desk. In the future, if all goes well, I'll be leaving that boat anchor either in the car or at home and going "solo" with my iPad.

The iPad's lack of multitasking is a bit disconcerting. I can begin a calculation in pcalc and it "remembers" where I was when I come back and there's always the tape. I can open a document in goodreader and it remembers where I was when I come back, but I have to navigate to the folder and document I was viewing because goodreader always opens on its home screen. While neither of these feels quite as seamless as multitasking would be, I can live with it for now.

In the future, I'll look for ways to use my iPod touch as the backup for my iPad. The possibility that both of them would go cuckoo on the same night is very remote. :eek:

I know you thought I was going to say I was walking in to tonight's exam with nothing but my iPad. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm close. :apple:
 
I really wish that law school exams let me do this. I'm taking exams for my tax LL.M. classes next week, and I have a 5 inch binder stuffed with all the reading material, another 120+ page of notes, and a fully separate outline, as well as print tax code and regulations (and that's just for one class). We are not allowed to bring any electronic devices (except a standard calculator) in to look up information even though we can bring in any printed source we want. Luckily, I take my exams remotely, so I don't actually have to lug that crap anywhere, but it would be so much nicer not to have to print it out in the first place. Ironically, I take the exam on a locked-down computer, but we are not allowed access to the computer or internet to look anything up while taking the exam... just printed resources (not like you have time to really use them) in a 3.5 hour exam.
 
I think the great thing about using an iPad for your notes for an open-book exam is the ability to search for a term. Rather than having to remember where it appears in your think binder, you can just find the three days a particular subject was discussed.
 
JonboyDC said:
I think the great thing about using an iPad for your notes for an open-book exam is the ability to search for a term. Rather than having to remember where it appears in your think binder, you can just find the three days a particular subject was discussed.
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same thing. The iPad would have been nice to have in school.

By not allowing students to use electronic devices, it sound to me that some teachers are lazy. Creating a test that makes it time consuming to Google answers must be too challenging for them. :)
 
JonboyDC said:
I think the great thing about using an iPad for your notes for an open-book exam is the ability to search for a term. Rather than having to remember where it appears in your think binder, you can just find the three days a particular subject was discussed.
Click to expand...

Exactly. There were three questions where I remembered the general answer but was able to use search in Goodreader to get right to the notes I needed.


Chris Blount said:
I was thinking the same thing. The iPad would have been nice to have in school.

By not allowing students to use electronic devices, it sound to me that some teachers are lazy. Creating a test that makes it time consuming to Google answers must be too challenging for them. :)
Click to expand...

It was very nice to be able to bring my iPad to this test. Google answers doesn't help much with certain topics.

alia said:
I really wish that law school exams let me do this. I'm taking exams for my tax LL.M. classes next week, and I have a 5 inch binder stuffed with all the reading material, another 120+ page of notes, and a fully separate outline, as well as print tax code and regulations (and that's just for one class). We are not allowed to bring any electronic devices (except a standard calculator) in to look up information even though we can bring in any printed source we want. Luckily, I take my exams remotely, so I don't actually have to lug that crap anywhere, but it would be so much nicer not to have to print it out in the first place. Ironically, I take the exam on a locked-down computer, but we are not allowed access to the computer or internet to look anything up while taking the exam... just printed resources (not like you have time to really use them) in a 3.5 hour exam.
Click to expand...

It is great to be able to leave several hundred pages of printed notes at home. Maybe law schools will eventually come up with a policy that allows paperless notes, possibly on a kindle or iPad that has been locked down by the university.
 
I know from just my own engineering classes that there's not a snowball's chance that our profs. would let us use anything with Google/Wikipedia access on it for exams, be they open notes/text, etc...hell, we can't even use our TI-89's.
 
I'm surprised they would let you use the iPad, because it is an internet enabled device so you could easily be searching the web.

More than anything, I wish I had some open note exams...
 
The next time I have an open note test I think I might due this instead of the laptop.
 
Chris Blount said:
By not allowing students to use electronic devices, it sound to me that some teachers are lazy. Creating a test that makes it time consuming to Google answers must be too challenging for them. :)
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how time consuming it is. There will always be that clueless student or two who is desperate to not fail and will look up a couple answers if given the opportunity. Not allowing internet access makes it easier for everyone by removing the temptation/suspicion. Try actually teaching a high school or college class and you'll change your tune pretty fast.
 
PhillStew said:
I know from just my own engineering classes that there's not a snowball's chance that our profs. would let us use anything with Google/Wikipedia access on it for exams, be they open notes/text, etc...hell, we can't even use our TI-89's.
Click to expand...

I remember when I was still in grad school, there were a couple engineering exams where it was opened everything (wifi connected laptop included). It really depends on what the exam is. The ones that allowed it were either along the lines of asking the students to design something new or where the calculations were complex enough where Googling it wouldn't be much help if you didn't already know what you were doing in the first place.
 
I have a bachelor's and a Master's in Computer Engineering. I was one of the first in my school to use laptops during tests. Then everyone started doing it. Now, some teacher's don't allow it. (I work there now, LOL).
 
Detlev_73 said:
I would think that it's because the student brings his iPad as his only notes and it turns out it can't be used, s/he would pretty much be screwed.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I would have thought this would be something covered day one.
 
jessica. said:
Makes sense. I would have thought this would be something covered day one.
Click to expand...

Day one, eh? What academic calendar are you thinking of? Anybody taking a test today very likely would have begun their class in January, before there was such a thing as an iPad.

But yes, I did check and notebook computers are allowed and therefore so are iPads. Last semester we had a prof who didn't even allow iPods as calculators so not only was I unable to use my favorite calculator (pcalc), I decided to invest $13 in a solar rpn calculator I saw at micro center.

A few years ago I had to take a state exam and they wouldn't even allow programmable calculators. I borrowed an hp 12c for the test.
 
r0k said:
I can open a document in goodreader and it remembers where I was when I come back, but I have to navigate to the folder and document I was viewing because goodreader always opens on its home screen. While neither of these feels quite as seamless as multitasking would be, I can live with it for now.
Click to expand...

Actually, in the Goodreader preferences, you can set it to automatically open back up to where you were, bypassing the home/folder screen. Huge time saver and helps mitigate the lack of multitasking, much like pcalc does.
 
admanimal said:
It doesn't matter how time consuming it is. There will always be that clueless student or two who is desperate to not fail and will look up a couple answers if given the opportunity. Not allowing internet access makes it easier for everyone by removing the temptation/suspicion. Try actually teaching a high school or college class and you'll change your tune pretty fast.
Click to expand...
And who said I haven't. Be careful making assumptions.
 
Hopefully os4 will help eliminate the problems with having constantly reopen documents if the os can just freeze the document.
 
I have to wonder if we are losing anything by this. Ordinarily, I would just agree with you all. BUT, when I was an accountant, my old boss would tell me about how when she was in school and when she began her career, there was no excel. Everything was done on paper. So something as simple as summing a column would have had to be done by hand.

What do you guys think?

As far as consolidating notes and textbooks though, it gets an A+
 
xraydoc said:
Actually, in the Goodreader preferences, you can set it to automatically open back up to where you were, bypassing the home/folder screen. Huge time saver and helps mitigate the lack of multitasking, much like pcalc does.
Click to expand...

I suppose I could have turned that on during the exam, but I had left it to the default of starting at the home screen because there is a disclaimer about the app not launching properly in some instances. I'd hate to have it set to go back to the same spot when that spot is a corrupted pdf file. :eek: That would be a whole lot more inconvenient than merely having to open a folder and then a file.

Chris Rogers said:
I have to wonder if we are losing anything by this. Ordinarily, I would just agree with you all. BUT, when I was an accountant, my old boss would tell me about how when she was in school and when she began her career, there was no excel. Everything was done on paper. So something as simple as summing a column would have had to be done by hand.

What do you guys think?

As far as consolidating notes and textbooks though, it gets an A+
Click to expand...

I think people who say the young are being cheated because they don't have to use slide rules or hand write figures or crank their cars to start them are just cranky old farts (myself included). :D There is nothing to be gained by going out before dawn to harvest the corn so you can grind it so you can make grits, and oh, look at the time! It's time to go to bed already and you never made it to work doing all that farm stuff!:rolleyes:

Our daughter has a heavy windows tablet pc. She can get her textbooks on it but the software just plain sucks. I bet if Apple had anything to say about it she could spend less time futzing with the software and more time reading.

There are times I get frustrated with the fact we have to jailbreak if we want something as fundamental as a filesystem but then I remember the things I love about the iPad. It starts up instantly. No waiting. It can be faster than opening a book because you can use search to get to the right page. Then there's the connected aspect where you have the internet at your fingertips. Then there's the size. Smaller than a legal pad. In fact, it's slightly smaller than a 75 sheet 8.5x11 college ruled notebook.

I picked up a text book in Kindle format. I could hardly stand reading it on my iPod Touch. I could sort of live with it on the desktop, but on the iPad, either in Kindle or in iBooks format, it is an absolute pleasure to read books. So yes, I agree iPad gets an A+!
 
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