Comparison of academic performance and stress levels in open book test and closed book test and perceptions of undergraduate dental students

Medical education is emerging with introduction and implementation of new teaching, learning and assessment methods. Medical education units in the academic institutions striving to motivate the students and to convert the learning into student centered from teacher centered. Open book test is an assessment method where the student is allowed to use the text book or notebook or any reference materials to write the examination. This will decrease the need for memorizing by the students and reduces the academic stress.1 Earlier studies reported that open book test is worth implementing as it is a best assessment tool and also promote student centered learning. Further, it helps to reduce the stress levels of the students.2 Open book test also motivates the student to use the textbooks more frequently and limits the last minute preparations for the examinations. Further, open book test improves the higher-order thinking skills of the students as they critically analyze the contents in the textbook also get adequate time to present those contents in a creative way in the examination.3 It was reported that there is no difference in the marks obtained by open book test and closed book test.4 As the main goal of the assessment is to assess the thinking skills rather memorizing skills. Further, the environment is relaxed to the students. As the open book test reduces examination stress without affecting the academic performance, it can be implemented in the medical education.5–7 Recently, All India council for technical education recommended open book test for engineering curriculum. However, the studies related to implementation of open book test are relatively less. Hence, the present study was undertaken to observe the effectiveness of open book test in reducing the pre-examination stress.