[AmyPrib]

When I was in college, for mechanical engineering, we were able to use our books/notes/cheatsheets for almost all our upperclass (2nd yr +) subjects. The reason was simple - it's better to know how to apply the materials you've been learning than to cram it into memory the nite before an exam and forget it afterwards. The reasons were very similar to what you were given - in industry (for engineering) you should know where to go find the information if you don't have it in memory, you have access to reference materials in industry and should focus on application during school vs straight memory.

I found myself many times not remembering the exact formula, but remembering what chapter, and what side of the page it was on. I think that happens a lot, so it's nice to have use of reference materials.

I always created cheatsheets regardless if we were allowed to use them. I found that just by writing the information out, formulas, constants, etc, that I remembered them better when I got into the test and didn't need the cheatsheet so much. Plus, I covered more material looking for what I should put on my cheatsheet, so it's a nice review. During tests you don't have much time to flip through pages looking for information - so you need a combination of memory and ability to locate info quickly.

But like others have said, it depends on your job function and the info that needs to be recalled.