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I know I mentioned the Exam Information folder in the first video, but it’s so important
that it merits a short video all by itself. In this folder right here you’ll find some
really important resources to help you prepare for our exams. Of course the exams themselves
cover specific chapters in the textbook and specific pieces on the CD’s. Those are your
primary resources. And by the way, you find those exams organized here in these five content
areas. They’re listed by exam number as well as by the period they cover. So you’ll
find the resources you need for specific exams here in these sections. If you click on these
you’ll see, for example, sorry that’s slow, that there are folders that there are
power points and resources in them, and then the quizzes and the exams appear below those
folders. However, prior to taking those exams it’s very important that here in the Orienation
section you review carefully the materials that I’ve put together in this Exam Information
folder. Here in this folder you’ll find the general information that will help you
know what to study for each exam along with information on general exam style and format.
Now unless you are a musician, you may not be familiar with some of the testing methods
we use in a music class, even a music history class like this one. You’ll want to become
familiar with things like listening exams before you actually have to take one. That’s
where these materials come in.
One of the things that has caused trouble for people in this class before is a lack
of understanding about how the exams are formatted and the topics that will be covered on each
exam. All that information is right here. The Exam Overview gives you the big picture
of how our exams work. Once you’ve read that overview right here, move on to these
podcasts that contain more detailed explanations of how the exams are structured, including
the types of questions you’ll encounter. You play these by simply clicking the link
for the mp3 file, and I apologize, Blackboard for reasons I cannot explain, sorts these
out of numerical order. So as many times as I try to put them in 1, 2, 3, 4 order, they
don’t stay that way. So go by the numbers, click the link and you’ll see it will open
up in its own separate window and play. It’s simply and audio file, no video like this
orientation video, but that’s how you can reference the podcast information there. Make
sure you listen to all four of these, and if you want to read along or you want to download
this transcript for later study, that’s available right here. I’m confident that
the podcasts will answer almost any question you have about the exams. Now, the Exam
Details file will show you what textbook question… sorry, what textbook pages you need to study
and what pieces of music will be covered on each exam. This should be one of the first
things you reference before you start reading the chapters on the Middle Ages and Renaissance
– the periods covered by Exam 1. Make sure you’re reading the right pages and listening
to the right pieces.
This file is a pdf file that you can open by simply clicking that link. PDF files sometimes
open differently than the documents you saw in the first video. At least here on a mac
using the Chrome browser, PDF files open automatically. You’ll see that here in the Exam Details
file each exam has general information presented, pages covered, the quizzes that are associated
with the exam, and the number of the pieces that are going to be potentially on the listening
portion of the exam. Then it lists both by CD number, disc number and track number, as
well as by title, all those pieces and it give you the names of the composers and the
genres. That’s important because the identification questions, as you’ll learn as you listen
to the exam podcasts, feature questions where you have to, where you’ll hear an excerpt
of a piece we’ve studied and based on the characteristics you observe in that excerpt
you need to identify the piece. You do so by looking at a list of possible titles, composers,
and genres that are right there in the question and you’ll select by clicking, next to the
right name, the correct title, composer, and genre. Three correct answers for each identification
questions. And you can see that same information is here for every single test: there’s exam
two for the Baroque, exam 3 for the Classical era, and so forth.
I can’t emphasize enough how important these exam resources are. And by the way, even
though this is this is an area that’s devoted to the exams, because the quizzes are so closely
associated with those exams, I’ve included a brief write-up here on those as well. Please
invest some time now in becoming familiar with all these resources, and with the general
structure of our exams, and you’ll be so much better off later in the semester.