Now, I'm an intelligent human being. I realize that a 300-level history course is going to be pretty challenging and in-depth, even though it is only music in Western civilization, rather than world music or, in fact, a general history course. I realize that I'm going to have to remember names and dates, as well as doing everything I can to do well in this course.
But is it too much to ask for a thorough review sheet? Is it really? This afternoon, Dr. A. handed us 4-pages (double-sided) of questions. This came to about 6 pages of multiple-choice and 2 pages of short-answer. This would not have been bad, because this is, as I said, a challenging course. This felt more like, say, a mid-term exam than a regular test, but I could deal with that. The part I could not deal with, however, was the fact that perhaps 1/4 of the material on the test was covered in the review sheet. We counted five of the fifteen short-answer questions that were covered, and roughly twelve of the forty-three on the multiple choice. There is a listening portion, where we identify composers and song-titles by listening to part of an example, but THE WRITTEN PORTION TOOK SO LONG THAT WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME IN THE 50-MINUTE PERIOD.
It does not take me 50-minutes to take a test. It has never taken me 50-minutes to take a test, barring the SAT's and maybe two out of all the final exams I've ever taken in my college career, including every test in which I've had to write an essay.
Tomorrow, one of our number is taking an example of the last test (just as bad) and the review sheet to the head of the music department for her perusal. She will be informed that the highest grade anybody in the class is recieving is a "C", which none of us can afford - we all have music as an emphasis either in a major or minor. Hopefully, this may help us, if only so that we can get free P/NC's in the class.
Inquiring minds want to know: Is it so hard to make a reliable review sheet to make studying for these hellish experiences just a jot easier?
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1 comment:
Wait, you only get 50 minutes for a test? Back when I was in college, we got at least a full hour, and while I may not always have needed it, it came in pretty handy on some of them. (Especially Taber, who did every test as though it was a final.) That said, your teacher sounds frankly incompetent to hand out a review sheet as miserable as that. Why bother handing one out at all then?
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