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Description of Final Examination

Let me provide here some information about how the Final Exam will be conducted as well as a description of what it will entail (please read carefully) and some brief suggestions:

Procedures:

As with the midterm, the final examination for this class will be administered through Canvas and in the same way (the only difference is that I'm going to ask that all responses be submitted as file uploads, which most of you choose to do anyway -- it turns out I cannot annotate text entry responses).  It will be available to you on Canvas through Assignments starting at 12:30 PM on Thursday, March 9 and due by 5:00 PM Monday, March 13. Thus you have several days during which you must complete the exam.  

Once you start the exam, you should take no more than three (3) hours to complete it...it is designed for 2 (and many of you will not need that long). You may start the exam within the period indicated above but please start and complete it within that time frame and within 3 hours once you begin.  So plan to set aside 3 hours where you know you can work uninterrupted.

The exam will be posted as an 'Assignment' (same as your two papers this quarter), and I will in addition post it as a PDF in the event you would find it helpful to download/print it or view it in a separate window. 

This is an OPEN BOOK exam...feel free to consult your texts/notes.  I strongly encourage you, however, to prepare for this exam just as you would prepare for an in-class, closed book exam.  In terms of content and structure, the exam will be no different from the one I would administer in an 'in person' exam setting.

Outline of exam:

  • PART I (60%). Quotations, IDs, etc.  Short paragraph discussing the significance/relevance of various quotations (drawn mostly from readings in C&F) or IDs (e.g., Ara Pacis). You'll have considerable choice here. Please note: 'short paragraph'. Not a sentence. Multiple sentences -- not one sentence -- doth a paragraph make. 
  • PART II (35%). Essay. Be prepared to write an essay in which you compare and contrast the appearance or use of one or more themes we (= you) have observed in esp. the second half of the course (for example, prophecy, past vs. present (and/or future), peace/love vs. war, fertility, death vs. birth/renewal (or just death or just birth/renewal), personal/family relationships, etc.) in at least TWO of the following areas: literature, art&architecture, religion, law, politics.  The best answers to this question will be specific in citing examples and demonstrate some familiarity with material that was not necessarily discussed or discussed in depth in class but was covered in your readings. In short: show us what you've read, not simply what you've heard.  
  • PART III (5%). Mystery essay.  

Suggestions for preparation: 

In anticipation of the inevitable 'how do I prepare for this exam?' question, I will give the advice I always give: review the assigned readings and your lecture notes.  And specifically:

With respect to Part I, you will have noticed that I read a lot of passages to you, and I do so to emphasize their importance.  If you have made note of those in the course of lectures, then you're in luck!

With respect to Part II: While I have regularly drawn attention to various recurrent themes, in this Part I am most interested in how you make connections between the various aspects of Augustan culture we have considered.  You do not have to discuss everything; you merely have to choose a theme and relate it to two areas (so read the above description carefully).  This is where advance preparation will really help; if you don't start thinking about this until you begin the exam on Canvas...well, you might regret that.

With respect to Part III: Don't fret about it.  You will like it, and there is no way you can prepare for it.  Plus, there are no wrong answers to this one.