Divine Chaos

Hey everybody!  Good morning.

I just wanted to drop you a line giving you some last day advice for tomorrow’s exam. 

READ THIS ENTIRE EMAIL!  DON’T BE LAZY!

1.  Your best preparation will be to complete the multiple choice sections within each chapter of your prep book.  If you do not know an answer or get one wrong, then look to the explanation Curt gives.  Pay close attention to the vocab for each section as well.

Multiple Choice Questions

2.  On the exam tomorrow make sure that you answer as many questions as you can.  Practice the art of elimination.  Look for the choices that cannot be correct, then choose from those that could be correct.  Always guess if you can eliminate two choices.

3.  Be sure to read each question carefully.  As you found out, there is more than enough time to complete the MG section.  Read critically and think carefully about each answer choice.  For instance, on the practice exam we took on Thursday, a question asked about examples of checks and balances.  ETS is counting on students rushing through and choosing the wrong answer like “the president nominates cabinet members and the House holds confirmation hearings.” Yeah, we know it is the Senate, but a lot of people rushing through will mark that as the answer.  Again, think critically and break down each answer choice to find out what about each is wrong, then eliminate it. 

KEEP GOING!  READ THIS ENTIRE EMAIL!  DON’T BE LAZY!

Free Response Questions 

4.  Remember that you will have to complete all four of the questions on the exam.  You can answer them in any order.  Just make sure that you number each.  You have 100 minutes to answer all four questions.  Give yourself  25 minutes for each question.

5.  Be sure to box each question carefully.  The purpose of boxing is to ensure that you figure out all the parts of the question you need to answer.  If you leave out a second explanation or identification, you just loose unnecessary points.  Don’t forget to box on your green sheet (which is the sheet on which the Free Response questions are written).  This counts as your final exam grade.  Leave it blank and you get a zero.  You do not need to write your full responses in the boxing, just the main idea.

6.  Indent each section and subsection.  “One reason that the president. . .” is indented, and so is “A second (or another) reason that the president. . .”.

7.  Slow down and write neatly.  If they can’t read it, they can’t score it.

8.  Organize your response logically.  Make it easy for the reader to score.  

9.  Remember, no Bear Sneezing.  They can tell.

10.  Don’t neglect to give examples every time you can.  You may think that you are being clear, but an example, even a hypothetical one, makes it absolutely clear to the reader.  Readers are looking to give you points, an example is the way to give them the reason.

ALMOST DONE!

11.  Bring sharpened pencils to the exam as well as a new dark blue or black pen.  Leave your cell phones at school or with the test proctor.  Masterman students do well on these exams and that catches the eye of ETS.  Don’t give them any reason to question are scores.

12.  Get some rest tonight.  Go to be by 11:00 and wake up to a nice moderate breakfast.

13.  EVERYONE IN MY CLASSES CAN GET A FOUR OR A FIVE ON THIS EXAM.  WE HAVE COVERED THE MATERIAL AND YOU ARE READY!  Just apply yourself today to reviewing what you already have learned.  

Email me if you have any question.  Good luck to all of you!

Mr. Gilligan