How to Study for an Open-Book Exam

If you just found out your next exam is open-book, you might feel a wave of relief. That’s completely natural—and it’s also the number one trap students fall into. According to Cornell University’s Learning Strategies Center, open-book exams are often harder than closed-book exams because they require you to truly understand the material and apply or analyze it, rather than just memorize and recall facts.

Here’s what that means for you: your professor knows you have your notes in front of you, so they’re not going to ask you to define a term or recall a date. Instead, you’ll face questions that ask you to compare concepts, evaluate arguments, apply theories to new scenarios, or synthesize information from multiple parts of the course. These are what educators call “higher-order thinking skills” based on Bloom’s Taxonomy—the framework professors use when designing exam questions.

The biggest misconception is thinking you can just look everything up during the exam. Kansas State University’s Counseling and Psychological Services warns that your time will be limited, so the key is proper organization to quickly find the data, examples, and arguments you need. If you’re seeing material for the first time during the test, you’re already behind. Simon Fraser University’s Student Learning Commons puts it bluntly: there may be sufficient time to quickly refer to materials, but not to learn something new from them during the exam.

To study effectively, you first need to understand what your professor is measuring. Open-book exams are built around what educators call higher-order thinking skills. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Learning Center explains that Bloom’s Taxonomy moves from lower levels, such as remembering and understanding, to higher levels, including applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Your open-book exam will target those upper levels.

Practically, this means you should expect questions that ask you to apply a concept to a situation you haven’t seen before, analyze how two theories differ when applied to the same problem, evaluate whether a particular approach would work in a given scenario, or synthesize ideas from multiple units into a cohesive argument. Indiana University’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning confirms that closed-book exams can ask factual questions, but open-book formats require moving toward higher-order thinking as defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Understanding this shift changes how you study. Instead of drilling flashcards, you should practice explaining connections between ideas, working through sample problems, and writing out how you’d apply course concepts to real-world situations. Trent University’s Academic Skills Centre emphasizes that effective studying for open-book exams goes beyond simply reading your notes—it requires highlighting themes, organizing ideas, and making connections between them.

The single most important mindset shift: study as if it were a closed-book exam first, then use your materials as a safety net. Simon Fraser University’s Student Learning Commons is direct about this: learn your material as thoroughly as you would for any other exam, and do not count on having time to look up all your answers.

Start by reviewing your syllabus and course learning outcomes. Memorial University notes that your syllabus outlines the goals your professors addressed throughout the course, making it an effective compass for identifying the topics most likely to appear on the exam. Then work through your notes unit by unit, focusing not on memorizing individual facts but on understanding how concepts relate to each other.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Weingarten Center recommends maintaining your regular study routines: read, understand, confirm that you have understood, practice problems, and compare solutions with your results. Practice exams are especially valuable here. If your professor provides past exams, work through them under realistic conditions. If no practice exam is available, Princeton University’s McGraw Center suggests reviewing the syllabus and looking for relevant information on specific topics in your materials. Kansas State University adds that you should anticipate questions but not prepare scripted answers—instead, challenge yourself with how you would approach various question types.

Once you’ve studied the material, it’s time to build what Princeton University’s McGraw Center calls your “custom table of contents.” This is a quick-reference sheet that maps key topics to the exact pages, notes, or sections where you can find detailed information. Think of it as your personal index for the exam.

Cornell University’s Learning Strategies Center recommends creating indices of key topics, identifying where to find more information on each, bookmarking important pages, and preparing a list of key information, such as formulas and definitions. You want to be able to look up specific facts in seconds, not minutes. Simon Fraser University suggests writing key concepts on sticky notes and using them as tabs to index your textbook, notes, and other materials. You can even color-code the tabs for quicker access.

One critical point from multiple university learning centers: more is not always better. Cornell warns that there is such a thing as too much when it comes to reference materials—the more you have, the more you need to look through. SFU echoes this by advising that bringing excessive materials may distract you, clutter your workspace, and tempt you to waste time looking up facts unnecessarily. Trent University recommends deciding between paper and digital study notes based on your learning style: paper notes are accessible even if you can’t open other programs, while digital notes allow you to create linked content and split your screen.

When you sit down with your exam, resist the urge to immediately flip open your notes. Cornell University’s Learning Strategies Center advises that you review all the questions before you begin answering. This preview gives you a mental roadmap: you’ll see which topics are covered, identify questions you can answer from memory, and spot which ones require your reference materials.

After previewing, start with the questions you know best. Simon Fraser University recommends answering questions you know first without extensive referral to materials, then using your references for exact formulas, numerical values, or supporting evidence. This approach serves two purposes: it builds your confidence early and ensures you bank points before spending time looking things up.

Time management is critical. Kansas State University advises quickly reviewing the number of questions and estimating how much time each should take. Then monitor your pace throughout. If you’re spending too long on one question, move on and return to it later. Cornell also warns against over-answering—on open-book exams, students are often tempted to keep adding information or to keep checking answers again and again. Be thorough and accurate, but also concise. And don’t over-quote either—your own analysis is what earns full marks.

Even though you have your notes available, you may still feel anxious before and during an open-book exam. That’s completely normal. Research published in Frontiers in Psychology indicates that up to 20% of college students experience significant test anxiety, and the stakes of an exam don’t disappear just because your textbook is on the desk. The University of Pennsylvania’s Weingarten Center addresses this directly by pointing out that the easy access of open-book exams can actually become a source of confusion if you’re not prepared, since having everything at your fingertips can feel overwhelming without a clear system.

The most effective way to manage test anxiety is thorough preparation. When you’ve studied the material and organized your references, you’re transforming the open-book format from a source of uncertainty into a genuine advantage. You know the concepts, you know where to find supporting details, and you have a system for quickly locating information. That confidence comes from preparation, not from having notes available.

If anxiety strikes during the exam, use a simple reset technique: pause, take three slow breaths, re-read the question, and identify which part of your reference system addresses it. Don’t let panic push you into frantic page-flipping. Trust your preparation system. Research consistently shows that students who systematically prepare for open-book exams perform significantly better than those who assume access to materials obviates the need to study.