Preparing for our midterm exam

Hey all:

Okay, so you are all getting ready for our midterm exam. In this post let me give you some hints to prepare for the exam--the type of questions you will get and how you should answer them.

First of all, I want you to think of the midterm as (a-hem) a "celebration of knowledge." Okay, are you still with me? I'm serious--if you have done the reading, if you have been putting yourself in our class discussions, if you are taking the time to think through the readings in your posts then this exam is a way for you to stand tall and say, "Look what I know!"

Of course, no one really believes me when I say this (and I probably wouldn't either). But I do want you to think of this as a way to show me (and yourself) what you know...we have read challenging, tough (and depressing) texts--you have been making smart links in your posts and in classes--now do so in your exam!

OKAY, let's get to the exam itself:
IF YOU WANT TO DO WELL, YOU NEED TO KEEP ONE WORD IN MIND AT ALL TIMES--SPECIFICITY. You need to be specific at all times and all essay answers to questions, to receive credit, needs to be specific in their answers. No, "War is hell" or "It's tough to fight in war" or "these books are about how devastating war can be." These are cliches or general responses--always respond with a specific scene or specific issue that you can back up with textual analysis. Get it? Anyone can read the back of these books and get the gist of what they are about--your job is to actually have thought through these books and their issues and have some solid understanding of them.

Here's the exam format:
1st section--Short answers
I will have a bunch of words and phrases and you need to explain where this word or phrase comes from AND its meaning in the book. Here are a couple of ideas:

American Apparel
Sniper
Sand
Any GI letter

Your job is to identify the word from one of the novels/plays and then give a specific meaning of it. So if you chose "sand" for example you would want to write, "Sand is a common object in Anthony Swofford's Jarhead. Sand surrounds the soldiers and disturbs them; as Swofford says again and again it fills every crack and hole in his body. Sand represents the sameness and danger of the war--it is monotonous and the scenery never changes but it also has the possibility of containing death at any moment." You see how I answered that--1st sentence gives where the word comes from. Second sentence relates it to the book. Third sentence gives an analysis of the word.

2nd section: I like small essay questions about specific moments in the books or plays that we read. You will need a two solid paragraphs to answer these questions. So for example, I might ask:

While the Wall of Shame in Jarhead deals specifically with the sexual infidelity of loved ones back home, what else does this wall of shame represent?
I like this type of question because it allows you to answer the question in many different ways but you need to answer these questions with direct references to the text. If you want to say that the wall of shame represents the fear that soldiers feel about being forgotten in a place where they are changing very drastically, then I would connect it to Swofford writing letters to his Japanese girlfriend and explaining that he wishes he could pour himself in the letter and send himself, sand grain by sand grain, to a person who knew him before he was in the war--when he wasn't the trained killer that he became. See what I did? I answered the question with a statement and then mentioned a direct reference from the text.

Here's the thing: I want to give you the chance to develop your own thoughts and bring your ideas into these questions (yes, the celebration part again). But these questions also allow people who have not read or read carefully to take a stab in the dark and just write generally in hopes that they get close to the answer. The way I guard against this type of essay is to have you write directly about the text. If you don't know the text, you will not be able to answer these questions well. Taking a stab in the dark will not help--you either know these books or you don't.

3rd Part-Large essay
Finally, I will ask you one large essay question in which you will have to write about a specific idea that we discussed in class and connect it to the texts we have read so far. The topic will be large "Media" "Gender issues" "Fear of Obsolescence" etc; your job is to be able to answer these questions specifically and with textual analysis (I know I am repeating myself--I hope you are getting the point.

*******
So be prepared to be here for a good two hours taking this exam--you will be writing a lot of essays where you will be able to show how much you know. You will NOT be able to take the texts into class but you may take ONE 8 X11 sheet of paper (one side) where you can put any notes that you wish. I would suggest placing names down and many short descriptions of scenes that could help you with some of these essays.

********
Finally, for your posts for this week, this is what I suggest--you write possible exam questions and answer them. As I read through your posts, I might offer some suggestions in answering those questions and I might also pick up some ideas in the exam questions themselves (in other words, if it's a good word or question, I might use them). You will also be helping each other--offer suggestions about answers or comment on what a fellow student wrote--this discussion might help you come up with some good answers for these questions.

********
Oh, one more study idea--read through the posts that I and your fellow classmates have left--I have been reading them and I will use their ideas in the exam questions as well.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!