One of the areas that I many individuals that I have encountered express concern and confusion is taking an open book test.  Now if you are lucky enough to have classes that don’t resort to timed exams, which by the way I think are absolutely the worst way to test an online student, then these tips will apply to you.

1. Read all of the material that is related to that weeks quiz.  Without reading the material the test questions will be harder
2. Eliminate answers that are not related to the question
3. Take keywords from the question and find the words in the reading material
4. Make use of the glossary in the textbook
5. Pay attention to shaded boxes at the end of the chapter.
6. Concentrate on the last chapter of the reading material more than the first

These tips are based on the quiz being multiple choice, not timed, and related to the reading material.  Now be advised that there will be times that instructors will design the open book test that the answers are verbatim from the text and other times the answer will be an extrapilation of what is discussed in your textbook.  Knowing what your instructor expects will go a long way in helping your test taking.

Using these guidelines the typical 10 question quiz took me 30 minutes to finish.  That time includes answering the questions then double checking my answers before submitting the test.  Though an open book test can be very difficult it gets a lot easier if you read the material before hand.