Study Guide for Final Exam on Introduction to World Religions | HISTORY 112, Exams of Anthropology of religion

Download Study Guide for Final Exam on Introduction to World Religions | HISTORY 112 and more Exams Anthropology of religion in PDF only on Docsity! 1 History 112, Fall 2003 Professor Ogilvie Handout #16 Study Guide for Final Examination Where and when is the final? Tuesday, December 16, 1:30-3:30 PM, in Bartlett 65. What will the final be like? The final will have two parts: a short identification section and an essay section. Short identification (40 points). The short ID section has sixteen terms, names, or concepts. You will have to write short (1-2 sentence) identifications of eight of them, stating their importance within the framework of the course. For example, here is a bad definition of the term “Buddha”: “Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Shakyamuni (Sage of the Shakyas), the Buddha was the founder of Buddhism. He achieved paranirvana in his old age.” Why is this a bad definition? It has a lot of detail but no sense of the big picture. The one general remark—that the Buddha founded Buddhism—is pretty obvious. What would a better definition look like? Perhaps this: “Founder of Buddhism. The Buddha rejected the caste system and the idea of a permanent self that persists through rebirths. He taught the Eightfold Path to enlightenment and urged self-reliance, though his followers developed devotional practices focused on him and on other Buddha-like figures.” The obvious point is followed by a few of the Buddha’s key ideas and a remark about how his religion changed after his lifetime. What terms will be on the list? You can expect terms which appeared in the lectures (see the outlines for a sampling) or that have a prominent place in the assigned readings. You will be expected to recognize terms but not to remember them on the basis of their identification. (That is, you might be expected to define “samsara” but I will not ask you “What is the Hindu and Buddhist term for the cycle of rebirth?”) For more tips on terms, see “How should I study?” below. Essays (60 points). The essay section has three questions. You will choose one to answer. When you answer an essay question in an examination, it’s important to be clear and direct. Since you don’t have a lot of time, it’s tempting to just start writing what you think. You should resist that temptation. If you just start writing, you’re likely to express yourself in a confused and disjointed way, even if you have a good answer to the question. Instead, you should take a moment to plan your answer. Your first paragraph should set out, in a schematic form, the points you want to raise in your essay. There are two reasons for doing this. First, it means that you don’t need to think about topic sentences for your paragraphs: you will already have thought about them. Second, if you run out of time to finish the essay, your first paragraph will indicate to the grader that you have at least thought about a point, even if you didn’t have time to develop it. Some students find it helpful to write a mini-outline on a piece of scrap paper before they start to answer an essay question. In answering an essay question, just as in writing a paper, you should not try to cram in everything you know, regardless of its relevance. Instead, you should think about which facts are relevant to answering the question and what they mean. Since the exam is closed-