One of the more difficult aspects of today's exam, in my opinion, was matching the period to the author. Many of us knew the authors, but were a little blaise when it came to fitting them into a specific time period (REMEMBER to say the "seventeenth century" for instance, and NOT the 1600s). I think that the idea suggested by Prof. Tougaw, regarding printing out the study guide sheets and arranging them into chronoilogical order, as indicated on the assignment sheet that was emailed to the class, will be very beneficial to us all.
Firstly, the process of actually physically doing this will allow us to become familair with the material by default before even actually beginning to process the information, unless we've done so already. Secondly we'll have an ordered sequence to refer to as we begin to review authors and their specific time periods--something that was problematic with our small group of students in the day section.
My biggest concern for the practice exam today was that I would draw a blank. Thankfully, my recognition of some characteristics of the periods as evidenced in the passages and excerpts saved me in some cases and allowed to me to recoup some points by virtue of my interpretation of the readings. Hopefully I'll be more familair with the time periods and authors than I was today through the useage of the study guides. Now I understand why they're as significant a part of our grades as they are. I'm sure that they'll be our biggest help in terms of prepapring for this LENGTHY exam---something which I'm sure we're unanimous in agreeing upon--my swollen finger is proof of this!
Comments (2)
I think that, no matter what, everyone is knowledgeable enough to be able to give good reason and analysis on the exam. It's not as though nobody knows nothing. That's how I'm going into it: I know I know something (perhaps many things), and I'm not going to let myself get down because I can't identify some passage from some antiquated 18th century novel or whatever. There's more to the study of literature than being able to identify John Milton.
Posted by Mr Thompson | March 10, 2007 4:30 PM
Posted on March 10, 2007 16:30
Lol, I like Mr. Thompson's attitude! You can't get stressed. There is more to literature than identifying Milton, but you just have to adjust your studying methods to be able to do this. I felt that the way I would study would be to do what Professor Tougaw said, which was print all the study guides and put them in chronological order (which I've already done) and highlight the most important things in each study guide. Then condense (I study by continuously condensing) all of them into one study guide for yourself with about three characteristics of each period and I feel like that will be much easier to study. When you have studied the periods and characteristics in chronological order, THEN assign them authors (about 3-5). Then you would have studied the periods already and the authors will just fit themselves into them. Make sure they are in chron order FIRST!!
Lol, it's easy to say it, but I'm sure everyone will do fine. Put in the time and don't stress. =)
Posted by True Romance | March 11, 2007 5:24 PM
Posted on March 11, 2007 17:24