Wright's Tips on Writing History Exams Examinations are standard fare in history courses, and they often constitute a significant proportion (20-50%) of students' overall grades. The fact is that exams are no fun, even for the most disciplined students. They lurk at the end of the course and cast a long shadow over other aspects of one's day-to-day performance, most notably one's attention to required readings and lecture materials. Students should always feel free to discuss exams and exam preparation - whether mid-terms or finals - at any point during a course. How students understand their obligations vis-à-vis examinations will have a direct bearing on the strategies they employ elsewhere in a course, and all university instructors know and respect this. There should be no surprises on examinations. On the contrary, instructors should be at pains to establish clear expectations about student preparation and performance on examinations, and they should inform students explicitly about which course materials are going to be included on exams and which are not. The successful exam paper University-level examinations in history are designed to test students' intellectual dexterity. For the most part, history exams are centred on essay-styled questions (rather than short-answer or multiple-choice questions), and they are marked by instructors subjectively (rather than by computers). This means that many of the same rules that apply to essay-writing obtain when writing exams. Though the criteria for what constitutes a good exam paper will vary from instructor to instructor, I would emphasize the following three elements: analysis, synthesis and allusion. Note: the one skill for which university-level history exams do not test is memorization. We know that you can memorize, cram and regurgitate information on the day of your exam - this is how you got through high school! I would urge you strongly, therefore, to discard any strategy which consists of mere memorization. Analysis Well-written exam papers are always analytical and never merely narrative. (For more on this distinction, please see the note on essay preparation I have posted.) Whether implicitly or explicitly, questions on exams are designed to assess how well you can analyze some historical question or debate; thus, as in essays, the most impressive exam papers take the form of an argument based upon evidence. Most university-level exams give you more time than you need to actually write good, solid answers (i.e. at Trent most history exams allow you an hour per essay-styled question). This is no accident. It is assumed that you will take 20 or 30 minutes at the outset, when you are composed and under little time pressure, to jot down outlines for each of the questions on which you intend to write. Outlines advantage you in two ways: they set out a map of the answer that you will later compose in full prose, thereby easing the pressure of having to think and write simultaneously; and, in the event that you do run short of time and cannot deliver all that you intend, outlines provide your instructor with a clear sense of what you were intending to write. Most instructors are willing to take into account rough/ outline material when they grade exams but, again, this is something that you should know explicitly beforehand. Synthesis Synthesis refers to the process of linking, comparing and contrasting various historical materials in a coherent analysis. Most history exams are designed in such a manner as to allow (or encourage) students to bring together disparate elements from the course in some kind of synthesis. This may include materials from various readings and lectures, from conversations in class, or from your experience of the issues under study. A good exam paper demonstrates that the student can see and articulate the relationships between materials, authors and ideas. The more original one's synthesis of course themes and materials, the better. Synthesis is perhaps the most demanding element in the writing of exams, since it requires presence of mind and imagination under conditions of time pressure and stress, but it is also the most highly rewarded. As a general rule, then, avoid responding to examination questions simplistically, or as if they were conceived with a single, formulaic answer in mind. Allow yourself some room to be creative. Take the path less traveled. Allusion Allusion is a sophisticated, highly nuanced aspect of exam-writing, and it tends to separate the sheep from the goats. Since you have only an hour (or less) in which to conceive and draft your answers during examinations, allusion allows you to demonstrate that you know more about your subject than you actually have time to show. Simply stated, allusion is the opposite of blurting out everything you know about a topic (the high school strategy)! On exams, less is always more. By use of short, incisive reference to materials, authors and ideas (rather than long, difficult, detailed regurgitation), you evince a confident mastery of your subject while leaving yourself more time for the analytical and synthetic aspects of your answers. Often the finest undergraduate exam papers in history are those which are completed in less than the allotted time. Allusion is a labour-saving device. One last thing Here is a trade secret for you! When history professors set examinations, they are obliged to be wide-ranging and inclusive. (Most final examinations in history, for example, provide a broad range of questions from which students must select a specific number.) Students with varying skill sets, aptitudes and levels of expertise must be able to succeed on examinations. There is, therefore, always more than meets the eye on an exam, and I would encourage you to take a moment at the outset to read between the lines. Almost all history exams include a question or two that the instructor knows only the most ambitious students will tackle. Thus, if you want to write an exceptional exam paper you have a choice to make: you can take the path of least resistance (selecting comparatively easy questions and delivering comparatively safe answers) or you can challenge yourself (selecting difficult questions and delivering sophisticated answers). Make no mistake: on exams as in life, it is far better to fail in a challenging task than to succeed in an easy one! Good luck on your exam. |