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Open-book exams are coming to more Indian classrooms. CBSE has approved open-book assessments for Class 9 from the 2026-27 session, as part of the pen-and-paper tests in languages, mathematics, science and social science, according to a Careers360 report on the board's decision. Your school's own circular has the final details.
The same report gives a warning. In CBSE's pilot of open-book tests, student scores ranged from 12% to 47%, and the report says these scores pointed to difficulty using resources and grasping concepts (Careers360). Having the book on the desk did not make the paper easy.
What does an open-book exam actually test?
An open-book exam lets you consult your textbook or notes while you answer. It tests whether you can use what you know: pick the right idea, find the detail fast and apply it to a question you have not seen before.
Research points to one risk: how you prepare. In a 2011 study in *Memory*, Pooja Agarwal and Henry Roediger found that students who expected an open-book test spent less time studying and did worse on a later closed-book comprehension and transfer test than students who expected a closed-book one (Agarwal and Roediger, 2011). An earlier study by the same group found that open-book tests gave higher scores at first, but after a delay students remembered no more than those who had taken closed-book tests (Agarwal and colleagues, 2008).
The lesson: prepare as if the book will be closed. The book is there to check a detail, not to teach you during the exam.
How do you prepare for an open-book exam?
Use this four-step plan for each chapter.
Learn it closed first. Read the chapter, then close the book and write down the main ideas, definitions and formulas from memory. Check against the book and fix the gaps. A 2013 review of ten study techniques rated practice testing as one of only two with high utility (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013), as our review of the Dunlosky study techniques paper explains.
Tab the book. Use three colours with one meaning each: for example, blue for definitions and formulas, yellow for worked examples, pink for tables, diagrams and data. Write a keyword on every tab so you can read it without opening the page. If every page has a tab, no tab helps.
Make a one-page index. List each topic, its page number and a short "use when" note. The note is the important part: it tells you which idea fits which kind of question.
Practise application questions. Answer unseen questions with a timer: first from memory, then with the book open to check. Note every time you had to search, and add that topic to your index.
What does a good index entry look like?
Here is part of an index for the Class 9 science chapter on motion. Fill in the page numbers from your own book.
Equations of motion, p. __: use when acceleration is constant and you know three of u, v, a, t, s.
Distance-time graph, p. __: slope gives speed; a curved line means speed is changing.
Velocity-time graph, p. __: slope gives acceleration; area under the line gives displacement.
Uniform circular motion, p. __: speed stays the same but direction changes, so the motion is accelerated.
Now test it on a question. A bus slows evenly from 72 km/h to 36 km/h in 5 s. Find its acceleration and the distance it covers while slowing.
From memory you should recognise "constant acceleration", so your index sends you straight to the equations of motion. The book will not do the next step for you: converting units. 72 km/h is 20 m/s and 36 km/h is 10 m/s. Then a = (10 − 20) / 5 = −2 m/s², and s = (20 + 10) / 2 × 5 = 75 m. The book confirmed the equation; your understanding did the rest.
What should you do in the exam hall?
Read the whole question and decide what idea it needs before you open the book.
Use your index, not the contents page. Go to the tab, check, close the book.
Answer in your own words. Copied textbook lines rarely answer an application question.
If a question is taking too long, mark it and come back later.
Neat tabs will not help if you have never practised unseen questions. Our post on whether practice tests help on new questions looks at the evidence. When a practice answer comes out wrong and you cannot see why, the Fermi Problem Library has worked problems with a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer.
Students often feel ready before they are, a pattern covered in our piece on why students misjudge their own learning. A short closed-book quiz the week before tells you what to fix.
