Final Exam

The exam will open Monday, Oct. 11th and close at the end of Friday, Oct. 15th (EST). A link to the exam will be provided in Blackboard.

Students should complete the exam in one sitting. There will be a time limit of three hours. Here are a few suggestions to avoid prematurely closed-out exams:

During the exam, you are free to refer to course content, the instructor’s lecture notes and videos, your own reading and lecture notes, as well as the assigned texts. Page number references in the exam questions will refer to the assigned texts as listed in the syllabus, so it is important that you have access to the correct editions of the texts during the exam. Students should take the exam individually; evidence of assistance may result in unwanted consequences.

For the essay prompts, please cite any material that you paraphrase or quote, and use quotation marks where necessary. Citations should include, at a minimum, the title and page number (if applicable) and the author of the source. Use quotations from the assigned texts with page numbers to support your answers — this is an important part of the exam.

The final exam will cover the following material:

Format:

Total points: 40

Sample questions:

To give you a general idea of what to expect, the following are used to indicate the types of questions that will be included in the exam. The actual exam may or may not include these questions:

Sample true/false questions:

  1. In the Apology, when Socrates states that “they got hold of most of you from childhood” (p. 23), he is referring to some of his accusers.
  2. In Meno, Socrates states that “There is virtue for every action and every age...” (p. 61).
  3. In The Alchemy of Happiness, al-Ghazali argues that financial success is more important than self-knowledge.

Sample short essay prompts (write 2-3 paragraphs for each prompt):

  1. Discuss the following quotation: “...there is good hope that death is a blessing” (Five Dialogues, p. 43).
  2. Discuss the following quotation: “...if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind...” (The Alchemy of Happiness, PDF p. 26).

As indicated above, for each essay prompt, I ask you to discuss a quote from one of the assigned readings. Each discussion should comprise 2-3 paragraphs and should be divided into two sections:

  1. Interpretation (1 paragraph). This is similar to the first paragraph of your weekly discussion posts. If the quote is from a dialogue or a work of fiction, please specify who is speaking (e.g. Socrates, Meno, etc.).
  2. Critical discussion (1-2 paragraphs). Do you agree with the quotation? Why or why not?

For both 1 and 2, use the guidelines on the Discussion Guidelines page. Thus, for 1, you should explain the main point of the quotation and its role in the text as a whole. For 2, explain why you agree or disagree; i.e., give some specific reasons for your position. Even if you agree, discuss some limitations or questionable aspects of the quotation. If the quote is from a work of fiction, discuss what the quote means in light of its context, and determine whether the quote has anything important to teach us.

As with your discussion posts, your answers to the essay questions should present evidence that you have read and reflected on the assigned readings. More specifically, each essay should include quotations from the assigned reading that support your answer. Please include page numbers after each quotation that correspond to the texts specified in the syllabus.


Short Essay Grading Rubric:

+++ = Good
++ = Satisfactory
+ = Needs Improvement
- = Poor/Missing

1. The essay uses relevant quotations from the assigned readings with page numbers to 
    support its claims: _____
2. Citations are complete and accurate: _____
3. Writing is clear and organized. Typographical and grammatical errors, if any, do not 
    detract from the clarity of the essay: _____
4. All parts of the question are addressed and the essay demonstrates sufficient 
    understanding of the main ideas of the text: _____

Study Tips and Additional Guidelines: