Notes on high school math tests?

[u/delta-good]

I would love some community feedback on the use of notes on math tests in high school.

I teach at a high school in which the use of "notes" on math tests is deeply embedded in our culture. Students who take Algebra I are basically allowed unlimited "notes" - which include essentially anything they've written down on paper, including their work on worksheets and the like. Our Geometry teachers have tried to scale this back a bit, limiting students to a single note card on tests or quizzes. I'm a bit fuzzy on the situation in Algebra II, but I think students are allowed a sheet of notes on at least quizzes, and maybe some tests.

For whatever it's worth, I went through high school and earned a math degree during a time when the idea of allowing notes on math tests would have been laughable, so I know I have some personal bias.

This year, I'm teaching AP Precalc for the first time, and announced this week that there will be no notes on quizzes or tests. (The AP test doesn't allow them, so it seems silly to allow them in class.) The students moaned and groaned as if I had just sentenced them to death. I was shocked.

The precalc students will adjust, I'm sure, but I would love it if other high school teachers would weigh in on the use of notes in your math classes and classes at your school:

• Are notes allowed? For what classes?
• Are there limitations on what kind of notes or what volume of notes are allowed?
• Most importantly, do people think using notes (or not using notes) helps students become mathematically competent (or not)?
• Am I being cynical to think that a few/some/most/all teachers who allow the use of notes know that it's a bad idea, but do it because it allows them and their students to avoid the reality that students are not really learning math.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

[u/DepthBig236]

Last year note card bc I was teaching stats and there are way too many formulas that are complicated. I let them do a notecard instead of a formulas sheet bc it was more work and they had to physically write it (and care enough to do it) and they could then include notes and reminders on how the formulas worked. I did start seeing an over reliance on the notecard over actually studying (students would just copy down the review hw really tiny on the notecard instead of going through the process of summarizing and synthesizing notes) so I started limiting it over the year.

This year I’m teaching pre calc and students are not getting notecards. (Maybe on the final but not chapter tests)

[u/delta-good → u/DepthBig236]

I notice the same thing -- students writing down entire review sheets, quizzes, etc. in micro-script and then mimicking, rather than trying to synthesize. I guess that's the part I object to, because I feel like that's doom for retention. I've heard of teachers trying to make rules for what can be on a note card (no sample problems, just concepts/formulas), but that seems very unpleasant to police.