`R 204:Western Religions, Fall 1998`

EXAMINATIONS FOR PROFESSOR DALE CANNON

WHEN WILL THE EXAMS BE?

At the end of each of the three sections of R 204, there will be an in-class examination. These examinations will be held Oct. 23, Nov. 13, and Dec. 9.

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 Oct. 2.

WHAT SORT OF EXAMINATIONS?

The examinations will be multiple-choice examinations of about 50 to 55 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:
       a.   to prepare young people to handle religious differences in the public sphere.
       b.   to promote moral values and respect for religion in young people.
       c.   to inform young people of the role of religion in shaping their culture and history.
       d.   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. 70CE stands for
       a. the Rabbis that put together the Talmud.
       b. the date of the rebuilding of the Second Temple.
       c. the date of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple by the Romans.
       d. the period of the Exile into Babylon.
       e. none of the above.

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. Being unable to detect bias in an account of a religious expression.

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. 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 Friday of 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 R204 Lectures (1996), 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 R204 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 without 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.

Direct suggestions, comments, and questions about this page to Dale Cannon. Last Modified 9/20/98 Western Oregon University