For our final examination, which will be held on Tuesday, June 10, from 5:45 to 7:50 p.m. in our usual classroom, you may use your own books and notes, but you may not communicate with anyone else or look at another student's books, notes, or examination. Doing so will result in a zero on the examination in accordance with the UWB Policy on Academic Integrity <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Integrity.html>.
All class materials, including assigned readings, films, lectures, and in-class and online discussions, are fair game. A strong familiarity with the readings and the screened films will be very helpful to you so you can find information quickly during the examination. A short summary written on each article or film or a sticky note inserted into a text might help you locate information quickly. Although you will not be expected to recall every detail of every film, you should be familiar enough with each film to be able to discuss important features and themes. View again any films about which you are not confident. Although I do not expect you to remember every tiny detail of each film, I do expect that you have carefully watched each film and noted significant elements. See the syllabus at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/DocFilm03Syl.html> for a list of screened films that you can view again at the Campus Media Center (see <http://www.bothell.washington.edu/media/>) if you want. A few films were borrowed from other campuses, so to see them, you will need to ask the Media Center to borrow them again, allowing at least a week's notice, or go to the place from which the film was borrowed (UW Tacoma's Media Center or the Media Center at Odegaard Undergraduate Library at UW Seattle).
The final examination will comprise a few short-answer questions (requiring from one word to one paragraph to answer adequately) plus an in-class essay. I will choose one of the following questions for the examination. Although you will not know which of these questions you will have to respond to until I hand out the examination, you know that it will be one of these. This method eliminates the element of surprise; you can study all that you need.
Potential essay questions:
Be sure to read the instructions carefully before beginning your examination. You will not be penalized for spelling, grammar, or punctuation, as long as I can understand what you have written. If you are concerned that I might be unable to read your writing, show me a sample at least a week before the examination. If I determine that your writing is too difficult to read, or if you simply prefer to type, we can make alternative arrangements, such as allowing you to use a laptop or a campus computer lab. Examination essays will be graded based on sophistication and depth of understanding evidenced in your response, which should be in the form of an argument-driven (thesis-driven) essay. Most good final examination essays run five to eight paragraphs and use specific evidence from the texts (readings, films, and lectures) to support the points that they make. Remember: clear thesis, strong analysis, consistent argument, supporting evidence. Show me how much you know and understand. Your examination will be scored out of forty-five points, up to forty of which will derive from your essay.
The other five points will come from the three to five short-answer questions. The following are examples of potential short-answer questions. These questions are similar to the ones that I will ask, but these questions themselves might or might not appear on the examination. They are included here to give you an idea of the kinds of questions that I might ask.
Potential short-answer questions:
You may not use quotations in your responses because they do not indicate that you understand what you are writing. Instead, please paraphrase in your own words. Quotations will be crossed out and disregarded.
You will need to bring the following items to the examination:
Prof. David Goldstein-Shirley
Univ. of Washington
Campus Box 358530
18115 Campus Way NE
Bothell, WA 98011-8246
Because I want to encourage students to see their final examinations as a last chance to learn something, I maintain a policy against e-mailing examination scores or final grades to students, so I encourage you to provide an envelope as specified above. If you choose not to have your examination mailed to you, then I will keep it until the last day of Autumn Quarter 2003 in accordance with UW rules. Very few students ever pick up such documents, so I will not bother to provide comments on examinations unaccompanied by a properly prepared envelope unless you write "Comments" on the front of your bluebook, which I will take to be a promise that you will pick up your examination in Autumn. You do not need to write "Comments" on your bluebook if you do provide a properly return-addressed, stamped envelope. In all cases, my comments on final examinations will be minimal because of the limited grading time.
If you have any questions about the final examination, please post it in the Discussion Board area of Blackboard at <http://bb.bothell.washington.edu> (click on the "Communication" button after logging on to Blackboard to get to the Discussion Board).
This page last updated May 29, 2003.
