R 201:EASTERN RELIGIONS
Winter 1999 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 Feb 1, Feb 22, and Mar 19 (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 8.
WHAT SORT OF EXAMINATIONS?
- The examinations will be multiple-choice examinations of 50 questions.
- 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 three parts. The first part will ask you to
identify the answer that is incorrect or least appropriate. This will be the most
difficult part of the examination. The second part will ask you to identify the answer
that is correct or most appropriate. The third part will be matching.
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. (Click here for the Exam Study Questions for the First Exam, the Second Exam, or
the Third Exam.)
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 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
Part I: Select the answer that is incorrect or least appropriate.
1. The legitimate purposes of public education religion studies include:
- to prepare young people to handle religious differences in the public sphere.
- to promote moral values and respect for religion in young people.
- to inform young people of the role of religion in shaping their culture and history.
- to help young people understand the role of religion in the different cultures of the
world.
Part II: Select the answer that is correct or most appropriate.
2. To say that Eastern Religions are "non-historical" means that
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.
3. The Test of Empathy |
a. When religious symbols become transparent to the meaning they have for insiders. |
4. The Test of Neutrality |
b. An approach to understanding religion from the perspective of insiders that
overcomes ego- and ethno-centrism. |
5. Bracketing |
c. Having a description of a religious expression be agreed to by knowledgeable
insiders. |
6. Empathetic Objectivity |
d. The placing of a religious expression in a neutral setting, in order to understand
it. |
7. 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.
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.
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.
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, especialy but
not only the R201 Lectures (1999), 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.
- 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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Oregon University Copyright © 1997 Western Oregon University
Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about this page to Dale Cannon. Last Modified
12/31/98