E211: British Literature to 1760

Suggestions on Preparing for Exams

Alfred J. Drake. Office: Hum. 520 | W 3-4 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com

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Observations. Education does not consist in mastering an overwhelming body of objective facts and then demonstrating that knowledge to impossibly learned authority figures. It has to do with taking the initiative to develop your own insights on subjects with which you may or may not already be familiar. If you study patiently, think your own thoughts, and work at setting those thoughts down clearly and compellingly, you will almost certainly do well. Students who treat courses as obstacles on the way to graduation, worry constantly about what the teacher wants to hear, try to figure out what the teacher wants to hear by reading commercially prepared "Notes," ignore everything said in lecture that doesn't sound like a testworthy "fact" or that is unfamiliar, study for exams only at the last minute with misguided intensity, and treat paper assignments the same as exams, will probably earn mediocre grades and, more importantly, won't be educated when they leave college, diploma or no diploma.

Test Elements: The test, which will be cumulative, will most likely consist in one comparative essay and a series of "short-response" questions that will suggest how carefully you have read and remembered the assigned texts. You will have a choice of questions for the essay, but will probably have to respond to all the "short-answer" questions.

For the essay section, here is the likely header information:

*Do not write about the same text/s you chose for your paper topic.
*Do not write about the same work in both essay questions, if there are two.
*Do not use outside material without proper attribution.
*Do not consult other students about your work: ideas should be your own.
*Anchor what you write to specific passages; that is, include quotations.
*Discuss specific sections of the text/s -- don't try to deal with everything.
*Being specific, coherent, and grammatical is more important than the length of the essay/s. Proofread as carefully as your time allows.

Rationale for the Essay Question: The essay question will give you a chance to compare two assigned texts. The point is to convey the insights you have gained about the assigned readings and demonstrate your writing skills--the ability to write insightfully, grammatically, and coherently. The point isn't to test rote memory, and there is no "right answer." I am not interested in whether you agree with my interpretations--as in the term paper, I would like to hear your interpretation of specific issues concerning manageable portions of the assigned texts. I am evaluating your performance as a compelling writer and interpreter. Good critics are good "storytellers"--they give us a sense of the text that makes us want to go back and have another look at it, for whatever reasons they specify.* Remember, your view doesn't have to be based on research or on some deeply theoretical framework. Although there's nothing wrong with doing research, the most important thing at the undergraduate level is to work out for yourself what you think makes sense, with some help from the instructor's and colleagues' comments in class. For a fuller commentary on writing essays, see Deductive Essays and other guides available from our Syllabus page.

Rationale for the Short-Responses Section: While I don't plan to ask "true-false" questions, I will ask relatively simple questions about many of our assigned texts. Most likely a sentence or two will make an appropriate response, and the substance of the response will show if you've understood certain basic points (whether factual or interpretive) about what we have read. You can do well on this section by either attending class regularly or at least keeping up with the digitized class sessions, taking good notes and reviewing them at times throughout the semester, and reading thoughtfully rather than perfunctorily.

*Criticism Note: For interested parties, I should say that the "reasons" could have to do with the text's status as representative of certain fundamental claims about the world (mimetic criticism); with the relationship between text and author (expressive criticism); with the relationship between the text and a specified audience (pragmatic criticism); or with the text's formal features and themes more or less for their own sake (objective criticism). Or, most likely, it could have to do with some combination thereof. For a fuller treatment of criticism and theory, see "The Four Coordinates of Literary Theory."