During my undergraduate studies, we had a short test in Principles of Management. It was an open-book test, meaning everyone was free to reference the main textbook. For many of us, this was our first experience with an open-book kind of test. Initially, we panicked when the lecturer told us to take a sheet of paper for a short test. Relief washed over us when the lecturer informed us that we could reference the textbook. Since the answers were readily available in the book, we felt greatly relieved.
We only had thirty minutes to finish answering the three questions, and halfway through that time, many of us were still flipping through the textbooks for answers we couldn't find. The joy of having the textbook as a reference turned to stress as time continued to pass, and the lecturer stood by, waiting to collect the papers. I struggled so much, but I couldn't even find an answer to just one question.
I could read from the lecturer's facial expression that he was still enjoying the whole show and he really loved seeing us suffer. After the end of the test, no one was willing to submit the paper, and he had to use a bit of force to make us do the submission. Knowing how discouraged we were, he became lenient with us and decided to make it non-scoring test.
His decision was welcomed with loud applause, indicating that we would have all scored low marks or zero score would have been more. We were taken aback since he didn't announce that there was going to be a test, besides the semester was too early to have considered a test. All the same, I learned a lot from the experience, and the aspect that struck me most was the fact that all the answers we couldn't find in the textbook were just there.
Our initial reaction was that there were no answers to the questions in the book, but the lecturer helped us to discover them; they were right there in the book. The issue we as students had was not giving ourselves time to study and understand the course. This is similar to most of the things we personally struggle with in life.
There are answers to everything; solutions that could lead us to every problem we may encounter. Discovering those solutions requires us to dedicate ourselves to learning or studying to be able to uncover them. This is why learning is an important aspect of life that should be ongoing. When we cease to learn, we cease to live.
This is because living has more to do with learning how to constantly solve issues, which are always unending. It is only when we maintain an open mindset and dedicate ourselves to learning that we can discover more solutions or answers. The world already has so many issues, and what it needs are solutions. Problem solvers keep searching, researching, and learning. I believe they are the ones the world listen to.