Category Archives: exams

09/10/24

Quiz Writing [updated]

Here’s the deal -it takes work to answer a quiz or an exam.  However, it’s not simply how much time you put in, it’s really about learning how to study smart. Sometimes we can find ourselves spending lots and lots of time  preparing for something but not get anything accomplished.  To be able to manage a full load of university courses, a life beyond class, maybe a job, etc, means being able to studying effectively and not waste your time.

Smart Study means listening to what is said in class (remember the blog on ‘what’s the prof want anyway?).  The lecture gives you the ROAD MAP to a satisfactory grade (for the mark inclined -that’s a C+/B-).  Read more, participate in tutorial discussions, ask questions in lecture, talk to your prof and TAs (we can be found fairly easily), generate questions as you read.  If you engage in smart study you will do okay.

The Quiz. the quizzes will draw from lecture and readings.

Format: Each quiz will have two basic sections.  The first will involve short, fill in the blank and/or matching type questions.  The second will involve answering a number of paragraph type questions.  For this section there will typically be a set of three or four possible questions from which students will select two or three to answer in the space provided.

One of the hard things about a first time experience with university examination is it is unlike highschool exams.  The structure and content of the test isn’t laid out for you ; you won’t be told what exactly is on the quiz or exam.  You will have to work at it, but the signs are fairly clear.

  1. Course outlines have headings and assigned readings under those headings.  Read the heading. For our first unit the main heading is:  “What is Anthropology.”  This should give a student a really clear indicator of the primary learning goal of the unit -that is, you are learning about what makes something anthropology.  In class we have been talking  about how it is that anthropologists do what ever it is we do.  It would seem that this involves research (called fieldwork in anthropology), key concepts (i.e. conceptual tools used in doing anthropology), and some basic understanding that there are several types of anthropology.
  2. Lectures have structure -take notes following the lecture structure. Sometimes it might seem hard to figure out what to take notes on -everything?  or, just the important things?  (but then ‘what is important’?).  When a prof uses powerpoint or overheads it makes your job as a student a little bit easier.  Normally we (ie profs) select key words or phrases that highlight what we have decided are the most important of critical issues.  Thus, your job of figuring out what is ‘important’ is made easier.
  3. Now put readings and lectures together. Compare your notes of lecture with your notes from the readings.  If you are a habitual highlighter -consider locking your highlight pen away and opening up a notebook in which you write into it the key ideas from the things you read; don’t waste your time highlighting  everything in the assigned readings.  By the time you’ve finished highlighting your book will likely look like a rainbow.
  4. Finally, if you haven’t been reading along as per the course outline you will find it harder to speed read and catch the wave in time for your quiz.  Of course, there are those among us who can read the textbook the night before and do okay (or even great).  But for the majority of us doing well on a quiz, a term paper, or an exam is the product of smart study and hard work.

More info on exams and exam writing can be found under the ‘good question’ post.

Edited and updated. Originally published October, 2010.

05/27/20

A Good Question

The idea here is that if one can generate a ‘good question’ from ones readings, listening to lecture or podcast, or watching video, one is well on the way toward effective learning.  If one is able to pose a question, a question that engages with the material at hand, that integrates it across domains of thought, then one is really moving forward with understanding and being able to use the knowledge one gains.

 

The good question exercise is one I often use in teaching. But more than that, it is an approach to learning and research that I use myself.

I try first to understand a piece of writing, say on a subject that is new to me or one that I might have a divergent perspective from the author. I am a strong believer in the efficacy of comprehension before critique.   It is so easy to create a shopping list of all the things wrong with something I disagree with.  It is more intellectually challenging to try and understand the logic, perspective, data, and argument of an author first. It will ultimately make any critique (positive or negative) more effective and nuanced in the long run. In my blog post ‘What does the prof want?‘ I discuss this approach in a bit more detail with an eye toward effective study technique.

Here is a standard set of instructions that I often use as the basis of a group activity in a class.

  • Each group is to generate two or three ‘good’ questions based on the reading assignments. Take a few minutes -no more than five- to brainstorm ideas within the group. Write them down so that you can consider them. These ideas should not be fully formed questions.
  • Next, review the ideas and begin to design questions from them. Ask yourself if the questions challenge you to think through the issues of fieldwork or do they help you understand the context of the two research sites. Be mindful that the answers must be in the readings and/or film. Also, the questions should not be designed to elicit opinion; they should require reference to information from the readings listed above.
  • After everyone in the group has asked and discussed the questions revise and winnow the questions to two or three that you would be interested in presenting to the class.
  • As part of this process you should also sketch out a brief answer to each of the questions.
  • After finalizing the questions each group will present one question to the discussion group. At the end of this session hand in the questions and answers.

Whether used as a group activity, or an individual learning technique, the idea behind the good question draws upon a variation of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This is a kind of hierarchy of learning and knowledge. Imagine that the first step is simple memory and recall. Then we start to build comprehension. We apply our knowledge in some way. From there we start to analysis novel situations with our knowledge, link it together synthetically with other types of knowledge and then finally are able to evaluate (or critique our knowledge).

The good question approach is based on an idea of active learning – go beyond memory work- integrate the knowledge into one’s one understanding and make use of it. Doing it this way is one effective way to become a more proficient learner and ultimately a better researcher.

 

10/4/13

Good Question Excercise: example questions

Here are a selection of some great questions that students prepared in ANTH 100 (2013).  The good question exercise builds from the “What’s the Prof Want” activity and blog post.   I would strongly recommend that you read over the blog post as part of your preparation for the mid-term and final exam. Also, take advantage of the study tips menu tab on the top right of this page.

Questions from Cordelia’s tutorial groups:

  • How is the minutemen organization part of or a product of the neoliberalist government?
  • Identify patterns found in the methods used to socially and geographically segregate the illegal immigrants and the Palestinians.
  • To what extent do the minutemen reaffirm the culture of conservatism in the US but are also antagonistically  positioned to it?
  • Evaluate the material and cultural motivations of the minutemen individually and as a whole.
  • Analyze the various ways in which the key is an important symbol for Palestinian refugees.
  • In what ways are the minutemen and the Palestinians both trying to protect their cultures/identity?

Questions from Daniela’s tutorial groups:

  • How do Palestinians maintain their identity and self-representation after Al-Nakba? And how has it changed over time?
  • What factors allow the minutemen to perform their duties?
  • For Palestinians in Jordan and Minutemen in the USA how is a sense of nationality and belonging to a specific geographical area linked to identity?
  • How do the US minutemen consider illegal immigration and terrorism as two side of the same coin, and how does this further their ideology?

Questions from Sarah’s tutorial Groups:

  • How and why do the minutemen claim immigrants are a cause of social ills?
  • How do the Palestinians see themselves and their own identity after being displaced?
  • Compare and contrast the homeland power struggle of Palestinian refugees and American Minutemen.
  • How do symbols, such as a key, represent the struggles and determination of the Palestinian refugees?
  • To what extent has the Palestinian’s sense of identity changed as a result of becoming a refugee?
  • Compare how the older and younger generations of Palestinians have adapted their cultural practices after 1948.
  • Why do the minutemen feel they are necessary or important?
  • What is the relationship between the U.S. government and minutemen and what does this relationship represent?

Questions from Danielle’s tutorial groups:

  • In what ways are the Palestinian refugees in Jordan considered to be a part of their “new” and “old” society?
  • How has globalization affected the communities in the two readings?
  • How might focusing on an individual affect the bias of the fieldworker?
  • How (if at all) do Palestinians embrace the new culture in which they are displaced?
  • What role does ethnocentrism play in actions of the minutemen?
  • Evaluate the impact of displacement on the social/cultural identities of the Palestinian refugees in Jordan.