Comments exam 1 anth1000d- HD
Here are some of the common trends which came of the first test, together with my
suggestions as well as stricter rules for the coming exams concerning those points. I have
extended the content since I could not show the points in class, please read them carefully
so that this exam helps you to be better the next time.
Do(s).
1. Read the questions and instructions carefully.
a) If you are asked to discuss something it means that there are issues which you are
supposed to know. Yet there are also many ways of problematizing such issues
and using your knowledge and imagination to discuss the question.
b) Try to write sentences which follow each other logically. Think that this is a small
article which somebody will read and try to make sense of, not me who is going
to mark your answer (evaluation will be on the basis of your ability to make sense
of a given topic, I will not give credit for broken and incoherent lumps of
sentences which show that you merely know some facts about the topic). You
should at least try.
2. Think.
a) It really helps to look at the other questions and see if you can find hints for an
answer in another one. Exams try to teach you something too, they are not only
intended to check what you have learned.
b) It is important to try to remember the connections we made in the class. If you
have difficulty in remembering special terms such as “synchronic”,
“ethnographic”, etc. try to break down the words to make sense of them.
Ethnographic: What is “graphic”? Something which illustrates, draws, “ethno”:
hopefully you will think that this is something about people.
3. Read what you have written.
It is very important to use punctuation such as periods (.). See if you have used the
correct grammar. The majority of you have English as a first language, so it is rather
embarrassing to make language mistakes that I can notice and correct! Nobody would
forgive you at the university level for such mistakes, especially after the first exams.
Don’t(s)
1. (I know that many of you did this with good intentions but it is not a good idea). DO
NOT answer more number of questions than you are asked to unless they are bonus
questions.
First, if you answer all six of the definition questions although you are only asked to
answer four, it is not fair on your fellow students; second, the next time I am going to cut
your points in half. Why? Answering all of the questions implies that you hope that the
correct four will get marks.
2. Be careful when using concepts and theories.
a) Do not treat concepts as if they are “things”. E.g. “Emic”- “etic”: these describe
particular ways of obtaining information, insight into people in anthropology. If
you do not read a relevant text explaining these terms you will tend to make
strange sentences which do not sound comprehensible at all.
b) Do not treat theories or hypothesis as if they are humans. E.g. “ The Sapir Whorf
hypothesis believes …”. A hypothesis states, people believe.
3. You are entitled to be amused by others’ mistakes but respect your fellow students, do
not think “someone else must have written so badly, not me”. Learning is a process.