I really love Margaret Ely Webb’s illustrations so I thought maybe embellishing my “diary” posts with them would add a little something.
Anyway, last post I mentioned studying for my midterm which was yesterday. I know @redtea was curious about it so I figured it would be nice to share what the content was.
So before the midterm we were given review and practise questions to get a gist of what the exam would look like. I’ll say that the real exam was in the exact same format, down to identical essay prompts.
So the first half was all short answer, we had to answer 10 out of the 13 given, so dealer’s choice. there were no multiple choice as my professor believes it to be juvenile; high school level. The questions themselves were fairly simple, along the lines of defining certain terms, understanding who said what, differences between Canadian and American systems, and a geography question.
The second half is the more interesting bit in my opinion: the essay portion. We were given 4 prompts and had to choose one to write about. I won’t mention the prompts I didn’t choose (unless you’re curious) because I think the one I chose is the most polarizing.
The one I chose asked me to write Marxism and Conservatism based on: conception of society and the economy, and application to current politics. This was ballsy of me considering the other essay questions would have been way easier to write without either outing myself or at least finishing the exam early. But I just couldn’t help myself.
I literally started off with the quote “A spectre is haunting Europe… the spectre of Communism” then proceeded to write about the differences between Marxism and Conservatism, which was simple enough. I mentioned the foundation and superstructure, how labeling certain art work as “degenerate” pushes conservatism (we’ve all even the weirdos with the statue profile pics), and just how conservative and capitalist ideology dominates most of global politics. When I wrote about Marxism in our current climate I did get a little enthusiastic about how certain states have survived capitalist violence despite all odds, how the ghost of the USSR still permeates, and that there is a bit of a new red scare going on (I did bring up the Chinese weather balloon). Would I have liked to be a bit more detailed and what not? Yes, of course, but this was a midterm and I wasn’t allowed to pull up sources to cite verbatim although I did make sure my information was factual. Vietnam, Thomas Sankara, the Korean War, stuff like that.
In terms of content I believe my essay deserves full marks, I answered the prompt and that’s that. But I am fearful that I may have “fucked” myself. I mean, my professor is on the record stated that the USSR was a colossal failure and just hasn’t been friendly to Marxist thought at all. And while I know that he’s supposed to be impartial and mark me based on what I’ve learned, but the second I handed in my exam and stepped out of the classroom a wave of dread washed over me. I’m worried that, even if I don’t get docked marks, I’ll be reprimanded or put on some watchlist or something.
Did I put a target on myself? Yes, 100% and it probably didn’t help that I ended off my essay with “A spectre is haunting the world… the spectre of Communism” because I love a good call-back with a twist.
Sorry for the delay, I was a bit busy when you wrote this and forgot to come back to it.
Sounds like you’re on top of things. Make sure you read the feedback carefully, whatever your mark. It’ll be helpful, too, to look at the marking criteria alongside your mark because then you’ll be able to see how the profs interpret the criteria. Sometimes it’ll say something like ‘engage with secondary sources’. Some markers will be happy if you engage with the secondary sources discussed on the course, some will demand that you engage with secondary sources that you found yourself, beyond the course materials. The criteria might spell this out, but if not you may be able to work it out depending on the feedback.
If you know the kinds of topics that will be coming up in future, practice with mock essays. Prepare paragraphs in advance on topics/issues that could come up. So if you have, say, three to five paragraphs prepared for each of Marxism, conservativism, liberalism, and fascism, you can write an essay on any combination of each of those themes. All you do is write out the paragraphs that you’ve practiced and add a sentence at the end of each one to show how your paragraph directly relates to the specific essay question. You can do this with core concepts, too.
In such practice essays, make sure your paragraphs include analysis, criticism, and evidence. This way you’ll remember the relevent sources and even your exam answers will include references and engagement with such sources. This works much better IME than trying to remember what individual sources say, and then free-wheeling in the actual exam.
Prepare so that the only thing you have to do in the exam is write out (more or less) memorised paragraphs and some additional application. There are only so many questions to ask, so you can write your own mock questions when you’ve seen some example past papers. E.g.: Compare X and Y; Explain why X’s disagree with Y’s; What is the difference between X and Y’s approach to [providing healthcare, education, housing, jobs, military expenditure]; “The world is …”, evaluate this quote from the perspective of X, Y, or Z. Answering mock essays like this will also prepare you with good practical examples in case the actual question is very different but wants to know about, as yours did, ‘application to current politics’.
That’s interesting to hear your prof’s view on multiple choice questions. There’s literature to dispute that view. MCQs can be used to test higher level skills, including analysis, criticism, evaluation, and synthesis. They can be appropriate even on post-grad courses. Each to their own. I’m only saying this so that you don’t fall into a false sense of security if you face multiple choice questions on another course and assume they’ll be easy. They may be easy or hard. At high school level, etc, they’re mainly used to test understanding, but that’s a design choice, and at that level almost all tests, even essays, are used primarily to test understanding.
Keep up the good work!