Second Friday: The testing issue

I am taking a distance course from a University in Sweden and on Monday I have my first proper exam. It's a bit of a hassle since I had to find a place to write it and then file a request with my school to be allowed to write it there. The more I study for this test and the more I look at old exams it just strikes me as odd how the testing system works. I understand why they have to do tests but for the life of me I can't think of any time where I will actually have to know all the causes for the beginning and end of the Cold War without being allowed to look it up.
I understand that certain thing you just have to know like the grammatical rules for a language, or how to install things if you're an electrician or something, but exact dates for wars... I don't think so.
Now testing throughout school is necessary but the importance we put on the test should be much less. I read this thing on Babble this week about a woman who's child had done well on pre-k exams and how her friend who's child didn't do so well had to scramble to find a preschool because the test scores were not high enough. To me the idea of testing 4 year olds to get the "gifted" or "brightest" ones to attend a certain school just seems plain wrong.
I personally believe in evaluating someones ability to find information as well as analyze it. That's what should be tested, not my ability to memorize dates and causes just so I can forget them as soon as the test is done.

Please feel free to share your opinion on the topic, or any other topic you think I should bring up for discussion!
I know this post isn't as long as it should be but I do have a test on Monday and not enough time left to cram all those dates into my head!