Open-book SAP exams: what actually changes for your prep

A lot of candidates hear that SAP®'s 2026 exams are "open-book" and quietly downgrade their preparation. It is one of the most expensive assumptions in the whole certification journey. The performance-based formats did reduce the payoff of memorisation — but they replaced it with something much harder to fake: actually performing the task, or reasoning through a connected business scenario, correctly and under time pressure. This guide unpacks what "open-book" really means in the performance-based era, why having references at hand is not the same as being able to do the work, and exactly how to prepare so the format works for you instead of against you. For the underlying mechanics of both formats, this sits under how to pass the 2026 performance-based exams.

Key takeaways

• "Open-book" describes a shift in what is graded — doing and deciding, not recalling — far more than a promise you can look everything up.
• Having a reference is not the same as being able to do the task. A note can remind you of a value; it cannot navigate, sequence the steps, or make the judgment for you.
• You still have to know a great deal cold — navigation, step order, key fields, and decision rules — because that is what makes you fast, and speed is graded.
• Reducing the value of memorisation raises the bar; it is harder to fake applied competence, which is exactly why the format changed.
• The right prep is timed, hands-on repetition of whole workflows, with references used sparingly — not a thicker stack of notes.

What "open-book" actually changes

Before going deeper, it helps to separate what candidates assume the open-book framing means from what it actually implies for a 2026 performance-based exam. Most of the disappointment on exam day comes from this gap:

What "open-book" means in the performance-based era

On the old multiple-choice exams, recalling the right option from a list could carry you a long way. Whether references were permitted or not, the graded skill was recognition: match the stem to the fact you remembered, pick the option, move on. The word "open-book" meant something concrete there — with a reference, you could find the fact you had forgotten.

The 2026 performance-based formats change the object being tested, and that is why the open-book framing is misleading. In a System-Based Assessment (SyBA) you complete configuration tasks in a live system; in a Scenario-Based Assessment (SBA) you work through a connected business scenario and make the decisions it demands. In both, the graded artefact is your action or your reasoning, not your ability to recognise a correct sentence. A reference can tell you what a setting is called; it cannot press the buttons, choose the correct option in context, or keep the moving parts of a scenario straight for you. So even where you can look things up, "open-book" buys you far less than it did — it removes the penalty for forgetting a value, not the penalty for being unable to do the job. If the format distinction is new to you, the breakdown of what SyBA and SBA actually measure sets the foundation this article builds on.

Why having references is not the same as doing the task

The single most important idea in this whole topic is a distinction candidates rarely make: knowing where a fact lives is not the same as being able to act on it. Consider what a performance-based task actually requires you to chain together in real time:

• Navigation. You have to reach the right function quickly. A reference that names the function does not shorten the path to it; only rehearsal does.
• Sequence. Most tasks are multi-step, and steps depend on each other. A note listing the steps is not the same as having performed them enough that the order is automatic.
• Field-level judgment. Real tasks hinge on choosing the correct value in context — the one that fits the business situation, not merely a valid-looking one. References list options; they do not decide.
• Verification. A capable practitioner checks that the action produced the intended result. That habit is built by doing, not by reading about it.

A useful analogy: a map is a reference, but having a map does not make you a fast driver. On a route you drive daily you barely glance at it; on an unfamiliar route you crawl, checking every turn. The exam is timed precisely so that the difference between those two states — rehearsed fluency versus reference-dependent hesitation — is what separates a pass from a near-miss. This is the same failure mode described in why capable people still fail these exams: the knowledge is there, but it isn't fast enough to convert into finished tasks in the time allowed.

What you still must know cold

"Less recall" does not mean "no knowledge." It means the knowledge you carry has a different job: it feeds speed of doing rather than recall for its own sake. Some things must be automatic, references or not, because stopping to look them up is exactly the time you cannot spare:

• Where things live. The path to the functions your role touches most should be second nature. Searching for the entry point is the most common way candidates bleed time.
• The shape of each workflow. The end-to-end sequence — what comes before what, and what each step produces for the next — has to be internalised, because the exam gives you the goal, not the recipe.
• The fields that matter and why. Knowing which handful of fields drive the outcome (and which are noise) lets you move without second-guessing every screen.
• The decision rules. The judgment that separates the correct action from a plausible wrong one is the hardest thing to reference and the most important thing to own — it is the difference the format was built to test.

Everything else — an occasional threshold, a specific code, a rarely used value — is fair game for a reference, if the exam allows one. The skill is knowing which category a given fact belongs in, and refusing to waste study time memorising things a reference can hold while under-rehearsing the workflows a reference can never perform.

How to use allowed references efficiently under time

Where a reference is available, treat it as a scalpel, not a security blanket. The candidates who benefit from lookups are the ones who almost never need them; the candidates who are sunk by them are the ones who lean on them for things they should have rehearsed. A few working principles:

• Decide before you look. Know what you are trying to confirm before opening any reference, so the lookup is a five-second check, not an open-ended browse.
• Budget lookups against the clock. Every reference visit is time not spent completing tasks. Treat a lookup as a small, deliberate cost — worth it for a genuinely forgotten value, wasteful for something you should know cold.
• Never look up the workflow itself. If you are consulting a reference to remember how to do the task rather than a single value inside it, that is a signal you under-prepared — and no reference will move fast enough to rescue it.
• Confirm the rules in advance. Whether any reference is available at all is exam-specific and can change, so verify the current terms on each exam's page before you sit it, and rehearse as though you will have none.

Managing that time budget is a skill in itself — the same one covered in depth in how to manage your time in a performance-based exam.

Not sure whether your prep matches the format? A free sample lets you feel the difference between knowing the answer and doing the task — before it costs you on exam day. Try a free sample.

Misconceptions that cost marks

Most of the marks lost to the open-book framing come from a small set of beliefs that feel reasonable and are quietly wrong. Naming them is the fastest way to stop paying for them:

• "Open-book means I can wing the workflow." You cannot. Unrehearsed navigation is slow, and slow loses. The exam grades finished tasks, and hesitation eats the time you needed to finish them.
• "A bigger cheat-sheet is better insurance." The opposite is true. A reference you have to read is a reference that costs you time; the goal is to need it as rarely as possible, not to make it exhaustive.
• "I'll recognise the right answer when I see it." Recognition is the skill the old format rewarded. The new format asks you to produce the right action, which is a different — and harder — thing to fake.
• "If I run low on time I'll just look it up." Looking things up is what makes you run low on time. Under pressure, the reference is a trap, not an escape hatch.
• "Reading the material twice is enough." Reading builds recognition, not fluency. Passing builds on doing — the gap between the two is precisely what the format was designed to expose. The wider set of these traps is catalogued in what to avoid when preparing.

How to practise for it

If the format rewards fast, correct doing, then effective preparation is simply repeated fast, correct doing — deliberately structured. The approach is the same across exams because the formats are shared, which is why the skills you build transfer from one certification to the next. A practical progression:

• Rehearse whole workflows end to end. Do not practise isolated facts; practise complete tasks from goal to verified result, so the sequence becomes automatic rather than looked-up.
• Add the clock early. Once you can complete a workflow correctly, do it again under time pressure. Accuracy that only holds when you are unhurried is not exam-ready accuracy.
• Practise with references the way the exam allows. If a reference will be available, rehearse using it sparingly so you learn where you are genuinely slow; if it won't, rehearse without one so nothing surprises you.
• Debrief every run. After each rehearsal, note where you hesitated, where you reached for a lookup, and where a decision was shaky. Those three lists are your entire study plan for the next round.
• Repeat until the workflow is boring. Boredom is the signal you want — it means the task has become fluent, which is exactly the state the exam rewards. The broader set of applied skills the format tests is mapped in the skills that actually pass a functional certification.

None of this is about collecting more notes. It is about converting knowledge into speed, and speed into finished tasks, so that on exam day the question of whether the exam is "open-book" barely matters — because you were never going to need to look much up in the first place. When you are ready to feel that difference for yourself, the performance-based exam preparation guide covers the full technique, and a free sample shows you where your preparation stands today.