Hi all,
I hope your exam period has gone well so far. I've received a few questions about exam preparation, so it's perhaps a good idea to provide some general tips.
1) The most useful things you can do to prepare for the exam are first, to look at the redacted version of the exam, try to figure out what the questions might be, and come up with some potential essay plans (the redacted exam is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nothhbo0dqqq1r4/REDACTED%20POLS%20209%20Final%20Examination%202013.doc) and second, to work through the tutorial worksheets (archived with the lecture powerpoints here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gbxk8lbpugnrtkr/PIp9RyuG_v)
2) Remember you can bring one typed sheet of notes. Prepare some pointers and useful notes, especially on things you may not feel especially confident about.
3) For the exam, it will be important for you to have some knowledge of at least one case (of your choice) - any of the cases we have discussed in the class is fine (Zaire, China, Venezuela, Chile, Singapore, Libya, the GDR, Egypt, etc.) or even a case we have not discussed but you feel comfortable using. The exam questions will typically ask you to discuss some of the ideas of the course in relation to one case, so you should have working knowledge of at least one of these - look at the readings related to the case of your choice. If you have no particular preference, read at least part 3 of the 1989 book, or chapters 2 or 3 of the Gelvin book on the Arab Spring. These are fun, easy to work through, and instructive. (And I hope most of you would have read through these long ago!).
4) There were many theoretical readings in this course. Though all of them are useful, I would say that the pieces by Levitsky and Way (competitive authoritarianism), Bueno de Mesquita (selectorate/winning coalition, insiders vs. outsiders), Przeworski (culture and democracy), Acemoglu and Robinson (regime change and inequality, democratization), Kuran (cascades, preference falsification), Tilly and Tarrow (contentious politics), Collins (on State Collapse vs. Tipping Point revolutions), Stephan and Chenoweth (non-violence), and O'Donnell and Schmitter (democratization) are probably the most important. If, at this point in time, you have not looked at these, or you don't have any time, or they are too challenging, you should look at the summaries by your fellow students in the blog (both blogs) - most of these have excellent summaries. There are also many excellent summaries for other pieces that you can use - the point is for you to demonstrate the ability to use the ideas from the course to analyze particular cases, so you may wish to vary this list. Look at old posts in the blog, and look at the announcements, for descriptions of what readings discuss which ideas while you are preparing.
4) Above all, don't panic!
Good luck!
Xavier
I know the answer is probably "as long as you can write in two hours", but how long do you expect these essays to be? About as long as our EBP's or slightly longer or...?
ReplyDelete"about as long as you can write in 2 hours" is a good answer, though it's not necessary to fill all the time if you've said all that needs to be said. But I suppose EBP-length will be ok in most cases - as long as you answer the key points in the question.
DeleteThe redacted questions shows 2 sections, does that mean one case for the first & another for the second?
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily - you can use the same case for both sections if you feel like it. Or you can use two, it doesn't matter.
DeleteThanks for such a thought provoking journey Dr Xavier Marquez.You bet,you have permament followers now! Loved your course. Hard but worth the try.
ReplyDelete