Most uni courses involve a lot of memorisation. Certain parts of business are, obviously, more memory based, such as accounting, and some much more creative, like marketing, but you'll never get away from it.
Each subject differs. Some subjects will focus a good deal on assignments, and only have a final exam, while others will have two exams but fewer assignments. The core accounting subject, at least last year, had no assignments at all. Definitely not open book, though. I can't verify for all subjects, but there are very few that allow open book.
As for the last question-- if a university course was 'easy', no employer would both with the graduates. That said, it's easier than, say, engineering or mathematics and computing. Your major plays an important part, too. Economics, finance or accounting would be harder than management or marketing.
