1. Midterm Review Slides Midterm: Format Study/Test-Taking Strategies
Message Board Group Work

2. Midterm Exam: Wednesday, Week 5
Please bring a large, clean blue book to exam (pens only).
The exam will take place in the class room during class time.
You will have 50 minutes to complete the exam.
It is a closed book/closed note exam.
Test Format, Study Tips and Q&A

3. The Exam Itself – 100 points
Part One: Short Answer
You will have a choice of 6 out of 8
About 25 minute (4 minutes each question)
However, Remember …Quality over Quantity
10 points each (60 points) 60% of grade
Part Two: Long Essay
You will answer ONE long essay from a choice of TWO.
About 25 minutes
(40 points) 40% of grade

4. Some study and preparation tips
Begin preparing now. Your retention will be much better, and your answers will be more thoughtful and thorough.
Don’t cram for the exam the night before the exam.  It will be much less stressful if you study and review every day between now and the midterm. (20 minute rule applies)
The midterm will ask you to make connections between texts and lecture/discussion and to synthesize rather than just regurgitate information that was memorized. 
The midterm asks you questions that require you to interpret or to apply your knowledge.
Practice answering questions in a timed-situation.
The midterm asks you to understand and use the terms and definitions and language that is focused on in lecture, discussion and in the texts.

5. REVISIT THE QUARTER THEMATICALLY.
Review your notes, lecture notes, reading notes, texts, etc. and make a list of key terms, ideas, people, events, etc.  (See Your List on MessageBoard)
Group information according to the major themes/motifs/symbols of the quarter.
Honor, Commemoration, Epic, Picaresque, War, Force, Artefactualization, Similes, Autonomy, Mediation, Human Capital and Identity
Organize according to binary oppositions
Male/Female, Shame/Honor, Reason/Imagination, Action/Consequence, Commemoration/Limits
It is also very important to know when the texts were written, who the audience was, what the genre of the text is (and characteristics of the genre), as well as historical and social context.
How does a comparative literatures scholar approach a text differently from a literary scholar or from a Germanist or a historian?
Be sure to think about why these elements matter with respect to the major theme of “war”

6. On the day of the exam…
Select the identification questions you know the best first (this will help relieve some test anxiety).              
Budget your time accordingly (4 min each Short Answer – don’t think in terms of sentences)     
Must make choices in timed situation – you will likely know more than you can write or type in 4 minutes.  
Get to the point (Don’t waste your time with wordiness or tangential and unnecessary information or personal opinion).             
Be Time Efficient…Don’t repeat yourself

7. On the day of the exam…
It is the QUALITY of the answer that matters (long answers don’t necessarily mean full credit).
Be specific! Give explicit details from the text and lecture and section rather than Personal Opinion)             
Count your answers to make sure you have answered 6 questions (you don’t want to lose 10 points).
Write in complete sentences.
Use academic English- avoid slang.
Please write legibly – If I can’t read it, it will not count.

8. Part One: Short Answer
Part One: Short Answer. Answer SIX of the following EIGHT questions. You should spend about 24 minutes on this section of the exam (about 4 minutes per answer). Answer thoroughly and include detailed and specific reference to the course material being tested including texts, lecture and discussion. Your answer must show knowledge of the texts and images in question. (60 points)
(Short Answer will include anything from weeks 1-5 readings, lectures (Wed Wk 5), reading questions, WH readings, images, discussion materials)

9. Short Answer Tips-Let’s Review
1) who/what is it (when it took place, general information identifying the individual, what event was it, etc.)      
2) whenever possible provide an example of or elaborate on the term, etc. from a text we read, from lecture, from discussion  (or express what the individual was known for)      
3) express why this person or thing was important (especially with respect to the themes of our course)      
4) Use specific details from lecture, texts, discussion as support rather than personal opinion.

10. Fair Game… I may ask any questions based on:
Lectures (Don’t Skip Wednesday Week 5 lecture – It’s Fair Game – maybe even one required question)
All assigned readings (including the Writer’s Handbook)
Any materials assigned or discussed in section
Images, Maps or other Visual Texts (lecture/discussion)
One of the short answer questions may:
Ask you to identify and discuss a short passage
Come directly from your reading questions
Come from class discussions of writing and revision strategies
Let’s practice a few…

11. Sample Question: 1) What kind of irony is reflected in the quote below, and what does it convey about the peasants at the time?
“Sim: Our dear father, who art heaven hallowed be name, kingdom come your will done heaven on earth, given us debts as we give our debtors. Led us never in no evil attempts, but save us from the kingdom and the power and the glory in eternity. Emma” (Grimmelshausen 13).

12. Sample Question
Identify 3 specific revision strategies discussed in discussion section or in the Writer’s Handbook materials and explain how these help you make improvements to your writing.

13. Sample Question
What does the “staging” of the event pictured right symbolize? What message(s) does this representation convey?
“Ratification of the Treaty of Westphalia” oil on canvas, Gerard ter Borch, Münster, 1648.

14. Sample Question
What 3 forms of honor are there in the Iliad society, and explain how one could have contributed to the start of the Trojan War?

15. What kind of irony is this, and what does it reflect about the peasants at the time? (2)
“Concerning theology, there was no one like me in all Christendumb … You can easily imagine that with such theology I lived like our first parents in paradise … I was so perfect and excellent in ignorance that I could not possibly have known that I knew nothing at all” (3).
The hermit was so successful in teaching me mainly because the smooth tablet of my mind was altogether blank; when he started writing on it, he did not have to crowd out or erase anything. Nevertheless, compared to other folks there still was plenty of simplicity in me, and for this reason the hermit called me “Simplicius,” since neither of us knew my real name (16).

16. Sample Question
Compare and contrast the form and function of the simile in the Iliad as compared to in Alice Oswald’s Memorial?

17. Sample Question
What are 3 ways you can test and improve the quality and effectiveness of your thesis?

18. Sample Question
Who was Hephaestus, and why is he such a pivotal character in the Iliad?

19. Sample Question
According to the Writer’s Handbook chapter on translation, in what ways is the act of translation an interpretive process?

20. Sample Question(s)
How does this “staging” of war make the recent past experiences present? What story of war does it tell?
How does the painting depict the inevitably of war that exists in a state of nature?
“Mars” oil on canvas , Diego Velázquez, c

21. Sample Question(s)
In what specific ways was the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial project controversial?
In what specific ways does the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial serve as a tool for mourning?

22. Sample Question
According to the Writer’s Handbook, what are 3 strategies for effective literary analysis?

23. Sample Question
How does the frontispiece to Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy depict life for individuals living in a state of nature?

24. Sample Question: What does the below reflect about Simplicius’ understanding of national identity (or existing in a state of nature)?
“… I asked him [Simplicius to Hermit], ‘What’s that, people,’ ‘village’? He said, ‘Have you never been in a village? Don’t you know what ‘humans’ or ‘people’ are?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I’ve been nowhere but here; but tell me, what are people”? (12).

25. Sample Questions
What 3 specific genre differences are there between the Iliad and Simplicius Simplicissimus and how do these differences help tell a different story of war?

26. Sample Question
According to Simone Weil, what impact does the daily possibility of death have on a soldier in battle as well as following a war?

27. Part One: Long Essay
Long Essay. Answer ONE of the following two choices in a substantial, well-organized essay that takes into account each part of the question. Be sure to provide specific information about the texts that you discuss. Your opinions are always interesting, but an examination requires detailed reference to the material being tested, so answers that do not demonstrate knowledge of the material will not receive credit. This segment of the exam should take about 25 minutes and is worth 40% of your grade (40 pts).

28. Sample Long Essay
In the first part of the quarter we read three texts about the Trojan War. In a thoughtful essay compare and contrast how the form of each text shapes the meaning of the story of war being told. In other words, how does the Iliad tell a different story of war than EITHER Simone Weil’s essay OR Alice Oswald’s Memorial.

29. Bring 1 large blue book to exam (and a pen)
Don’t try to cram study time into one night!
Get a little sleep in between!
Don’t forget the 20 minute rule! (If you have 20 minutes time, use it!)