A blue book exam is a type of test administered at many post-secondary schools in the United States. Blue book exams typically include one or more essays or short-answer questions.Butler University (Indianapolis) was the first to introduce exam blue books. They were given a blue color because Butler's school colors are blue and white, therefore they gave them the name "blue books."
Sometimes the instructor will provide students with a list of possible essay topics and will then choose one, or let the student choose from two or more topics that appear on the test.
Blue books typically contain several sheets of wide-ruled notebook paper.
The book itself is generally composed of two or three ruled leaves, bound in a sheet of paper and held together by staples. Although the color blue is most common, other colors may be used. The "Green Book" is anenvironmentally friendly green-colored book manufactured by Roaring Spring Paper Products that is the same size as its blue counterpart but is made with 100 percent recycled paper, 30 percent of it post-consumer waste.
Prevalence of blue book exams varies between institutions and between academic disciplines. At many universities, virtually all exams in disciplines such as history or literature are blue book, while at the same universities, disciplines such as geology and math may virtually never hold such exams.
If you hand out green books when your students were expecting blue books, you may expect at least a couple of your students to get all upset about it. If you try to tell them it's not important, they won't believe you. Oh, what hath helicopter parenting wrought.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a nostalgia piece...I never see them anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm kind of cranky today, but really?
ReplyDelete"A blue book exam is a type of test administered at many post-secondary schools in the United States."
I always thought the blue book was a cheap, pre-stapled set of pages onto which you wrote whatever test it was the university professor gave you. I didn't know that it was, say, a type of test in and of itself. So are there looseleaf paper tests? And is there an entry for these on Wikipedia, too? Please enlighten me.
Grumble.
I spent some time TA'ing at a green book school, and if I ever referred to them out of habit as blue books, some students would dive into a roaring panic not knowing what on earth I was talking about or where to get one and how they brought a green book instead is that ok omg omg omg.
ReplyDeleteDr. L, I, on the other hand, use those stupid Scantron forms for the reading quizzes I hate to give (but which students thank me for, claiming it helps them "keep up"). Anyway, I say over and over and over again, you need a BLUE Scantron form, as the machine won't grade the green ones. And inevitably, I get a few green ones.
ReplyDeleteIs there a joke in there I'm not seeing?
ReplyDeleteNo. Blue books are misery, pure and simple.
DeleteNo jokes with blue or green books, but white and red zones are a different story all together. The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone.
DeleteGreen book. Huh. LOL.
ReplyDeleteShades of Ghadafi....
Delete"At many universities, virtually all exams in disciplines such as history or literature are blue book, while at the same universities, disciplines such as geology and math may virtually never hold such exams."
ReplyDeleteWait, what? Never in my post-secondary academic career did I have an exam that wasn't blue book. How on Earth are students supposed to describe a plunging anticline or solve a differential equation on a Scantron sheet?
In my college calculus class, they simply provided space on the test sheets for you to work out your answer.
DeleteIt must have been nice to have gone to a university where intro calculus had fewer than 100 students. It's likely that the tuition they charge these days would make you plotz. Here at Middlin' State U, all exams for lower-level classes use Scantrons. Plunging anticlines and differential equations are all given as multiple-choice questions, with the correct answer listed along with four or so distractors, just like on the GRE. I didn't say I liked it.
DeleteIn my past life geology exams involved space on the exam and usually supplimentary tissue paper and graph paper answers.
DeleteI have my hs seniors write their exams in blue books-- it makes them feel all grown up. 'Course, I teach in a college town, so my babes are familiar with the concept.
ReplyDelete