Description of Midterm Examination

The midterm exam will be available to you on Canvas beginning Thursday, February 2 at 12:30 PM; it is due Tuesday, February 7  by 5:00 PM (ALL TIMES PACIFIC TIME).  Once you begin, you have 2 hrs. to complete it -- BUT the test is designed to be done in 50 minutes...so you should have plenty of time.  Note, however, that I cannot actually time you...2 hours is what I'd like to set as a limit.

A couple of important pieces of information:

1) For this exam (and for the final) you may consult your texts (including the course pack) and notes.  

2) Enter your responses on Canvas (it will or should be obvious how to do this). 

Description of midterm:

In each Part you will have considerable choice. The best answers to the questions you’ll be asked will display a familiarity with the sources you’ve read (secondary and primary) over the past few weeks. 

• Part I. Identifications (terms, people, events, important dates, etc.) with brief comment (a couple of sentences). 

• Part II. Selection of passages from what you’ve read in C&F (the course pack). You’ll be asked to comment briefly on one or more points of historical, political, etc. significance.  I don't expect you to be able to identify with any precision the source (e.g., Cassius Dio, Appian, etc.), though since you have access to your course pack, this would not be difficult!

• Part III. An essay on one of two topics. Either:

                a) Augustan reforms (focus on ONE of these three: provinces, magistracies, army)

OR 

                b) evolution of Augustus’ powers (in addition to the readings, refer to my Summary of Augustus' Powers for a list of what those powers were and when he acquired them)

☞ Obviously, you should give some thought to what you'll write in your essay beforehand, but please write the actual essay during the exam!!!

Some advice:

• A question I get all the time is, 'What do I need to know?'.  And my answer to this is roughly: you may use my lectures as a guide to what I have stressed and emphasized from the reading. You obviously don't need to know everything you've read, but hopefully by following the lectures closely you have a good sense of things you need to pay particular attention to and things you can pay less attention to.  This is particularly true with respect to the selections from the coursepack: if I have bothered to mention or even read a specific passage in the coursepack, you can be assured it's something 'you need to know'!  Now, all that said, I am always impressed when you demonstrate that you have actually done the reading!
• Hopefully, you have attended class and listened carefully to the lectures.  Assuming you've done that already, in preparing for the exam I'd read through the assigned readings again and review any notes you've made.
• If I were giving this during class time, you'd have 50 minutes to complete the midterm and I would not let you use books or notes.  But as I have said, my recent experience has been that this kind of exam yields better results.  So while you might see such an exam as reducing your preparation or study time, I would advise you to approach the exam as you would if you were taking it during regular class time (i.e., during a 50 minute class and with no access to books or texts).  In other words: use the time available to you judiciously (don't think that because you have 2 hours you need to write for 2 hours!) and consult the coursepack/texts/notes only when you absolutely have to.