Abstract— The differences between cheat sheet and open book exams were examined in introductory psychology classes. A total of 222 students enrolled in 5 sections of Introduction to Psychology participated in this study. Exam types were counterbalanced across sections. Students were given either cheat sheet or open book exams, and completed a pretest measure of test anxiety, exam preferences and study time. While students did slightly better on open book exams than on cheat sheet exams, exam scores were positively correlated, and students had lower levels of anxiety when taking open book exams compared to cheat sheet exams. Students also reported studying less for open book exams, but preferred open book tests. The decision of what exam type to use depends on a trade-off of student performance, preferences, anxiety levels, and effort.

Index Terms— Test anxiety, exam type, exam performance.

Afshin Gharib and William Phillips are with Dominican University of California, 50 Acacia Ave, San Rafael, CA 98901 USA (e-mail: agharib@ dominican.edu, wphillips@domincain.edu).

Cite: Afshin Gharib and William Phillips, " Test Anxiety, Student Preferences and Performance on Different Exam Types in Introductory Psychology," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-6, 2013.