
R
201:EASTERN RELIGIONS
Winter
2003
EXAMINATIONS
FOR PROFESSOR
DALE CANNON
WHEN
WILL THE EXAMINATIONS BE?
WHAT
SORT OF EXAMINATIONS?
CONTENT
OF EXAMINATIONS
EXAMPLE
EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
EXAMINATION
STUDY QUESTIONS
EXAMINATION
REVIEW SESSIONS
WHEN
WILL THE EXAMINATIONS BE RETURNED?
STUDY
TIPS
WHEN WILL THE EXAMS BE?
-
At the end of each of the three parts of R 201, there will be an in-class
examination. These examinations will be held Jan 31, Feb 21, and Mar 21
(10 AM for the 10 AM section, 8 AM for the 2 PM section).
-
You will need to bring a scantron test answer sheet to each exam and a
no. 2 pencil.
-
You will be taking only two of the three examinations for credit. Which
one will not be taken for credit will be decided by which date of the three
you decide will be the due date for your Term Paper, for which you must
register by Jan 10.
WHAT SORT OF EXAMINATIONS?
-
The examinations will be a combination of multiple-choice questions and
both short answer and short essay questions, 100 points in all.
-
The questions on the examinations will in many cases be different than
you may be familiar with in other courses with multiple-choice examinations.
Many of them will not ask for direct recall of things memorized, but will
ask you to combine information and make inferences from the information.
In other words, they test not simply recall of information but for understanding.
They will require you to think and will seem challenging.
-
Each examination will be divided into four parts. The first part will be
true or false. The second part will ask you to identify the answer
that is correct or most appropriate. The third part will be matching.
The third part will be short answer.
CONTENT OF EXAMINATIONS
-
The questions will test for mastery of the material covered in the course
lectures and assigned readings, especially as identified by a list of Exam
Study Questions for that section of the course. (The complete set of Exam
Study Questions for the three exams are given at the end of each of the
relevant sections of the R201 Lectures (2003) and Religious Studies
Essays.) The second examination will also cover the introductory
material for the course, and the exam study questions will reflect that
fact.
-
Among other things, you will be expected to learn some basic terms and
concepts that are essential to grasping the central ideas and teachings
of the traditions we will be studying. That is to say, you will in each
case be learning what is a foreign language to you, a different set of
basic terms for expressing matters of ultimate concern than you are familiar
with, a different way of thinking about the world and dwelling in it. Understanding
another religious tradition is very much like (and in some cases it is
the same as) learning a different language.
EXAMPLE MULTIPLE-CHOICE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
1. to prepare young people to handle religious differences in
the public sphere.
a. true b. false
2. to promote moral values and respect for religion in young
people.
a. true b. false
3. to inform young people of the role of religion in shaping
their culture and history.
a. true b. false
4. to help young people understand the role of religion in the
different cultures of the world.
a. true b. false
a. You are just plain ignorant, for it's plain that they have
been around historically for
thousands of years.
b. There are no actual historical founders of these religions.
c. It's virtually impossible to identify the historical dates
of the important events in
these religions.
d. They have a cyclical understanding of time.
e. They make no claim to a special revelation of "ultimate reality"
in historical time.
Part III: Matching.
| 6. The Test of Empathy |
a. When religious symbols become transparent to the meaning they have
for insiders. |
| 7. The Test of Neutrality |
b. An approach to understanding religion from the perspective of insiders
that overcomes ego- and ethno-centrism. |
| 8. Bracketing |
c. Having a description of a religious expression be agreed to by knowledgeable
insiders. |
| 9. Empathetic Objectivity |
d. The placing of a religious expression in a neutral setting, in order
to understand it. |
| 10. The Threshold Effect |
e. Where an author's account of a religious expression does not itself
assert the religious convictions being discussed and does not otherwise
express his or her own religious convictions. |
EXAMINATION STUDY QUESTIONS
-
A set of examination study questions to guide your preparation for each
examination is available.
The complete set of Exam Study Questions for each of the exams, plus any
supplementary questions associated with the anthology of readings assigned
can be found at the end of each of the relevant sections of the R201
Lectures (2003) and Religious Studies Essays.
EXAMINATION REVIEW SESSIONS
-
Special review sessions with me, for those students who desire them, will
be scheduled before each exam outside of the regular class period at a
time when most students who desire to attend can do so. No new material
will be presented at these sessions that will be expected on the examinations.
They will be entirely devoted to my responding to student questions about
specific exam study questions and questions arising from studying for the
exam. Their value to you will be directly dependent on your preparing
for the session in advance.
WHEN WILL THE EXAMINATIONS BE RETURNED?
-
In ordinary circumstances, the answer sheets will be graded and handed
back at the subsequent class session. Do not expect the third exam to be
graded before the Monday after Final Exam Week. You are encouraged to review
the corrected exam along with your answer sheet afterwards, but it must
be done in my presence. The exams may not be taken away.
-
The fourth (short answer) part of the exam will be returned to you to keep.
You may re-write from scratch any of the answers for which you missed
points in order to receive up to 1/2 of the points that you missed.
To qualify, you must hand in your re-written answers with the original
(plus scantron card) attached within one week of when you received them.
STUDY TIPS:
-
Even though the examinations ask for specific answers, their purpose is
to test how well you understand the material, how well you have mastered
it, not just how well you can recall the information. Thus it is important
that you comprehend the material in terms of its place within the
tradition in question. That is why the exam study questions are of a more
open-ended nature.
-
The best way to prepare is to read with care all of the assigned readings,
especially but not only the R201 Lectures (2003), and to write out
answers to each of the Exam Study Questions (see above).
-
Definitions of all of the terms on the Exam Study Question lists may be
found in the readings and specifically in the R201
Glossary. Extra help in comprehending these terms may be had by using
one or more of the glossaries or encyclopedias referred to in the Course
Schedule.
-
Commit thoroughly to memory your answers to the study questions.
Remember that the exam tests for mastery of the material.
-
Students in the past have found much help by studying together for the
examinations, once they have done their best to work up their own answers
to the Exam Study Questions. It is most unwise simply to accept someone
else's answers as satisfactory apart from verifying them for yourself.
Clearly some students are much better at finding the answers than are others.
So some students' answers may be of little or no help to you.
-
Attend an Exam Review Study Session. Identify beforehand which question(s)
you have not been able to find a clear answer to or about which you still
are uncertain.
Return
to syllabus.
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University
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Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about
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Last Modified 1/2/03.