Generating Ideas
When the clock is ticking away, generating ideas right on the exam sheet saves time. First read over all the questions carefully. If you don’t understand what a question calls for, ask your instructor right away. If you are offered a choice, cross out questions you are not going to answer so you don’t waste time on them by mistake. Annotate questions, underline important points, and scribble short definitions. Write reminders that you will notice while you work: TWO PARTS! or EXAMPLE OF ABORIGINES’ RIGHTS.
Outline a Concrete Answer. Instructors prefer concrete and specific answers to those that wander in the clouds of generality. David Cohn’s informal outline helped him cite evidence—particular experiments with infants—all the way through.
Thesis: Research on infants is probably the best way to demonstrate that some factors in perceptual organization are innate.
Cliff box—kid fears drop despite glass, mother; knows shallow side safe
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Size constancy—learned early if not intrinsic
Shapes—infants respond more/better to face shape than nonformed
Match sound w/sight—2 TVs, look twice as much at right one
Focus on the Question. Instructors prefer answers that are organized and coherent rather than rambling. Check the question for directive words that define your task: evaluate, compare, discuss, explain, describe, summarize, trace the development of. To put yourself on the right track, incorporate a form of such a word in your first sentence.
| QUESTION | Define socialism, and give examples of its main types. |
| ANSWER | Socialism is defined as . . . |
| ANSWER | Socialism is an economic and political concept, difficult to define because it takes many forms. It . . . |
Planning for Typical Exam Questions
For examples of many methods of development, see Ch. 22.
Most exam questions fall into types. If you can recognize them, you will know how to organize and begin to write.
The cause-and-effect question asks for causes, effects, or both.
What were the immediate causes of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s?
Describe the main economic effects of a low prime interest rate.
The compare or contrast question asks you to point out similarities (compare), differences (contrast), or both. Directions to show similarities or identify likenesses ask for comparisons, while those to distinguish, differentiate, or show differences ask for contrasts, perhaps to evaluate in what respects one thing is better than the other. You explain not one subject but two, paralleling your points and giving both equal space.
Compare and contrast iconic memory and eidetic imagery, defining the terms and indicating how they differ and are related or alike.
After supplying a one-sentence definition of each term, a student proceeded first to contrast and then to compare, for full credit.
Iconic memory is a picturelike impression that lasts for only a fraction of a second in short-term memory. Eidetic imagery is the ability to take a mental photograph, exact in detail, as though its subject were still present. But iconic memory soon disappears. Unlike an eidetic image, it does not last long enough to enter long-term memory. IM is common; EI is unusual: very few people have it. Iconic memory and eidetic imagery are similar, however: both record visual images, and every sighted person of normal intelligence has both abilities to some degree.
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The definition question requests explanation in many forms, short and extended.
Explain three common approaches to parenting—permissive, authoritarian-restrictive, and authoritative. [Supply a trio of definitions.]
Define the Stanislavsky method of acting, citing outstanding actors who followed it. [Explain a single method and give examples.]
The demonstration question asks you to back up a statement.
Demonstrate the truth of Freud’s contention that laughter may contain elements of aggression. [Explain Freud’s claim and supply evidence to support it, maybe crowd scenes, a joke, or examples from reading.]
The discussion question isn’t an invitation to ramble.
Discuss three events that precipitated Lyndon B. Johnson’s withdrawal from the 1968 presidential race.
Try rewording the question to help you focus your discussion.
Why did President Johnson decide not to seek another term? Analyze and briefly explain three causes.
A discussion question may announce itself with describe, explain, or explore.
Describe the national experience following passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. What did most Americans learn from it?
Provided you know that this amendment banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic drinks and that it was finally repealed, you can discuss its effects—or perhaps the reasons for its repeal.
The divide or classify question asks you to slice a subject into sections, sort things into kinds, or break the idea, person, or process into parts.
Identify the ways in which each resident of the United States uses, on average, 1,595 gallons of water a day. How and to what degree might a person reduce this amount?
First, divide up water uses—drinking, cooking, bathing, washing cars, and so on. Then give tips for conservation and tell how effective each is.
What different genres of film did Robert Altman direct? Name at least one outstanding example of each kind.
Sort films into categories—possibly comedy, war, drama, mystery, Western—and give examples.
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The evaluation question asks you to think critically and present a judgment based on criteria.
Evaluate this idea, giving reasons for your judgments: cities should stop building highways to the suburbs and instead build public lightrail.
Other argument questions might begin “Defend the idea of . . .” or “Show weaknesses in the concept of . . .” or otherwise call on you to take a stand.
The process analysis question often begins with trace.
Trace the stages through which a bill becomes a state law.
Trace the development of the medieval Italian city-state.
Both questions ask you to tell how something occurs or occurred, dividing the process into steps and detailing each step. The next question calls for the other type of process analysis, the “how-to” variety:
An employee, late for work daily by fifteen to thirty minutes, has been on the job only five months but shows promise of learning skills that your firm needs badly. How would you deal with this situation?
The response question might supply a statement, a comment, or a quotation, asking you to test the writer’s opinion against what you know. Carefully read the statement, and jot down contrary or supporting evidence.
Was the following passage written by Gertrude Stein, Kate Chopin, or Tillie Olsen? On what evidence do you base your answer?
She waited for the material pictures which she thought would gather and blaze before her imagination. She waited in vain. She saw no pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair. But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her.
If you were familiar with the stories of Kate Chopin, who specializes in physical and emotional descriptions of impassioned women, you would point to language (swaying, lashing) that marks the passage as hers.
Learning by Doing Asking Questions
Learning by Doing
Asking Questions
Working by yourself or with a study group, review your study guide, class notes, textbook, or other material for an exam. Make your own list of likely questions, or review your instructor’s list of sample questions. Consider each question, and identify its type, using the preceding list or adding categories. Then underline, circle, or highlight the key words that tell you what your answer needs to do.
Drafting: The Only Version
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When you have two or more essay questions to answer, block out your time roughly based on the points or minutes your instructor allots to each. Give extra minutes to a complicated question with several parts. Then pace yourself as you write. For example, wrap up question 2 at 10:30 and move on.
As you draft, give yourself room for second thoughts by writing on only one side of the page in your exam booklet and skipping every other line. Should you wish to add material later, you can do so with ease.
Begin with the Easy Questions. Many students find that it boosts their morale to start with the question they feel best able to answer. Unless your instructor specifies otherwise, why not skip around? Clearly number or label each answer as your instructor does. Then begin in such a way that the instructor will immediately recognize which question you’re answering.
QUESTION
Compare and contrast the 1930s depression with the recession of 2008 on.
ANSWER
Compared to the paralyzing depression that began in 1929, the recession that began in 2008 seems like . . .
State Your Thesis at the Start. Try making your opening sentence a thesis statement that immediately makes clear the main point. Then the rest of your answer can back up that statement. Get started by turning the question into a statement and using it to begin an answer.
QUESTION
What reasons for leasing cars and office equipment, instead of purchasing them, can be cited for a two-person partnership?
ANSWER
I can cite at least four reasons for a two-person partnership to lease cars and office equipment. First, under present tax laws, the entire cost of a regular payment under a leasing agreement may be deducted. . . .
Stick to the Question. Throwing into your answer everything you have learned in the course defeats the purpose of the exam—to use your knowledge, not to parade it. Answer by selecting and shaping what matters. On the other hand, if a question has two parts, answer both.
Name three styles of contemporary architecture. Evaluate one of them.
Stay Specific. Pressed for time, some exam takers think, “I haven’t got time to get specific here. I’ll just sum this up in general.” That’s a mistake. Every time you throw in a broad statement (“The Industrial Revolution was beneficial for the peasant”), take time to add specific examples (“In Dusseldorf, as Taine notes, deaths from starvation among displaced Prussian farmworkers dropped from a peak of almost 10 percent a year”).
Revising: Rereading and Proofing
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If you pace yourself, you’ll have a few minutes left to look over your work. Check that your ideas are clear and hang together. Add sentences where new ones are needed. If you recall a key point, add a paragraph on a blank left-hand page. Just draw an arrow to show where it goes. Naturally, more errors occur when you write under pressure than when you have time to proofread carefully. Simply add words with carets (^) or neatly strike them out.
When your paper or blue book is returned, consider these questions as you look it over so that you improve your essay exam skills:
ESSAY EXAM CHECKLIST
Did you answer the whole question, not just part of it?
Did you stick to the point, not throw in unrequested information?
Did you make your general statements clear by citing evidence or examples?
Did you proofread for omissions and lack of clarity?
On what questions do you feel you did a good job, whatever your grade?
If you had to write this exam over again, how would you now go about it?