With the torturous week of fall semester finals creeping up on us, the hope of open book finals comes to mind, well at least for me. It seems better to have the comfort of your notes whispering the answers to you while you just sit back and bubble in the corresponding letter, but in reality, it’s not that easy.

“I took an open book test freshman year,” senior Olivia Li said. “It ended up being a lot harder than the typical tests that we took without notes.”

Even if it is as easy as one thinks, and hopes, open book testing, especially during finals, won’t happen, at least for Spanish teacher Barbara Naylor’s class.

“We don’t do open book tests for finals because we found through the years that students don’t study and are less successful when they try too hard looking for answers in the book,” Naylor said.

Junior Nayoung Hur has a more positive outlook on open book tests, and sees it as her preferred choice.

“You can have better scores because you get to know what’s in the book,” Hur said. “You get to have more resources other than your brain.”

Another pro of open book tests is that, according to Hur, students don’t have to study.

“If it’s not an open book test, you’re basically cramming everything in your brain so you can memorize it all,” Hur said. “But with an open book test, it’s more relaxed.”

But there can also be a downside on heavily relying on notes for a test.

“If you don’t have detailed enough notes, then you’re out of luck,” Li said.

Naylor recognizes the problem that most students typically have when it comes to taking open book tests: excessive reading.

“Sometimes students wouldn’t focus on the most important material,” Naylor said. “They’ll look for little details rather than staying with the main idea that they are tested over.”

But if Naylor heard Hur’s statement, then she would have agreed.

“A weaker student, who could focus on what’s important, could actually get some help,” Naylor said.