Hello students,

MIDTERM EXAMS

This is week six of the term and your midterm exam "window" starts tomorrow, Monday, and concludes on Saturday. Recall that you are taking your exams on main campus. Click the link in Moodle for the days and hours of operation for the testing lab.  Be sure to bring a photo ID with you when you go to take your exam.  

You might be tempted to "put off" your midterm exams until late in the week, but I'd recommend against it. Although you can certainly take advantage of the week-long "window", the reading/viewing/quiz assignments you have to complete these week are NOT covered in the midterm. In addition, if you choose to spend the entire 6th week of the term studying for your midterm, you might get yourself "behind" in this week's work.

The exam is approximately 75 questions in length, and although there is no time limit, during past terms, it has taken most students one hour to complete. One hour is a rough guideline. I've had students finish in 30 minutes, and I've had others take close to two hours. No testing lab appointment is necessary, but lab staff will not allow students to start an exam within one hour of the lab's closing time.

The exam is in Moodle and will look similar to your weekly quizzes, BUT the midterm exam is ONLY accessible from computers in the CEN456 Social Science Testing Lab. You cannot take the exam at home, as you do the weekly quizzes.  The test consists of multiple choice, true/false, matching, and map questions, covering material from video Episodes 1-4, McPherson textbook chapters 8-21 (parts I and II), and the Ward textbook chapters 1-3 up to, but not counting Gettysburg.

MIDTERM STUDY LIST

I hope you've taken advantage of the midterm study list located under the Class Handouts link in Moodle. 

DATES & TIMELINES

To help with your studies, there are two wonderful timelines, whose web addresses I've put on the midterm study list.  They break down the major events of the war.  Your exam covers pre-1860 to July, 1863.  Episode 4 in the Ken Burns Civil War Series ends with Vicksburg and Chancellorsville.  That is where your midterm exam will end.  (The last half of the class starts at Gettysburg in July, 1863, and goes to the end of the war in 1865.) 

You should know that I do not require students to memorize dates, but you certainly need to know the rough timeline or sequence of events.  For example, first Lincoln was elected, which was followed soon after by the Firing on Fort Sumter.  Bull Run came after that. And so on.

MAPS

You certainly have to know slave states, from border states, from free states.  You also have to know the states where the major battles take place.  You will not, however, be expected to know troop movements, directions of attacks or retreats, or miniscule geographical distinctions.

You’ve had access to maps in the Class Handouts folder in Moodle since the first day of the term, and are expected to know the information contained on them.

ALPHABETIZED LIST OF TERMS

After hundreds of pages of reading, this list should help you focus your studies a bit.  You should also skim through ALL of the database questions, not only for your group, but for the other groups as well.  I was happy to see that some of the questions posed by different groups were very similar to the actual questions I had on put on the exam.


Have a successful midterm exam and a productive start to the last half of the term.