Why I Don’t Agree With Closed Book Tests for Computer Courses

I have worked in the computer industry for more years than I would like to admit. I have often told employers and contractors you are not necessarily paying for me to be present and sitting over a computer for 8 hours a day. Really what most non technical people don’t understand is, what they are thinking is true, this is hokus pokus to some extent. When I work for someone I try to make it perfectly clear, almost always I have no idea how to fix this or that problem. The reason why I can do this job is because I learn quickly, I know how to gather resources from various sources, I am tenacious and industrious. My exact quote would be something like “You are not paying me to know what button to push, you are paying me to know how to figure out which button to push”. In the real world I don’t regurgitate information I have memorized, and this is why closed book tests do not prepare students for the real world.