ENGL 330: Medieval Literature
Dr. Debora B. Schwartz
English Department, California Polytechnic State University

Information Sheet: Midterm Exam

The Midterm Exam will be worth 200 points. It will test your knowledge of the development of English literature from the Old English period through the Alliterative Revival and of Arthurian tradition through Malory's Morte D'Arthur. You will be asked to demonstrate your understanding of significant issues in individual works and your ability to make meaningful connections among readings. 

  • Exam hint 1:  Author, Genre, Language, Form and Date information listed under Text Info will be thoroughly covered in the objective portion of exams, as will the information on study guides and online readings.  STUDY IT WELL!
  • Exam hint 2: For the essay section, be sure that you are thoroughly familiar with the Essay Writing Tips and have reviewed the questions on the study guides, as well as your own and your other Group Members' MEs.  Exam essay prompts will be familiar to you from the questions on the Study Guides.
    • OBJECTIVE PORTION of exam will be worth 100 pts. It will consist of 100 scantron questions that cover: 
    1) Author, genre, form, sources, or literary terms associated with the primary readings covered so far in class. You will be expected to answer ALL questions.

    2) Chronology (dates given in Norton, text introductions, online readings or study guides for works and/or authors, periods, and most significant historical events). You will be expected to answer ALL questions.

    3) Background information from Study Guides, Online Readings, and lecture notes.

    Format is primarily multiple choice with some True/False. Be aware that there will be more than 5 answers to choose from: scantrons allow for combinations of 2 to 5 letters for answers (so, not just 5 choices, A, B, C, D, and E; also AB, AC, AD, etc. up to ABCDE).  This means: you will have to KNOW YOUR STUFF, and will not be able to guess correct answers using the process of elimination.  For True/False questions, keep in mind that parts of a statement may be true or sound familiar, but the statement as a whole may be false.  Pay attention to details. 

    To Prepare:

    -- Review general and individual author/work introductions in The Norton Anthology as well as assigned introductions in other texts. You are also responsible for material presented in study guides and online readings (including translatio and "courtly love") and in lectures (review class notes!) Review general questions on study guides.

    -- Some hopefully obvious remarks: you should know (and be able to spell correctly) the titles and authors (if known) of works read so far this term; also, know DATES of various works/authors read so far, as well as other significant dates and events (e.g. beginning, end and transition between Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman periods; which languages were spoken at court during each of these periods; and information found on the online reading about the Alliterative Revival; relative chronology -- what happened first, next, etc. -- of works/authors mentioned on translatio online reading, and distinctions between these works/authors). 

    -- Know genre, form, and particular literary devices associated with all readings. Know and be able to describe/define literary terms relevant to these genres, literary devices and forms (e.g. chronicle, dream vision, epic, romance, letter of moral instruction, hagiography, allegory, alliterative verse, rhyme royal, prose, link-word, concatenation, bob and wheel, etc.). 

    -- Review interplay between Latin and the vernacular(s) in England. Know which readings were in Latin (not English or French).  Know historical development of romance genre (see translatio online reading and study guides for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Malory).

    ESSAY PORTION of exam will be worth 100 pts. (possibility of GWR certification). Many will ask you to compare/contrast Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and and later (Middle English or French) works.

    To Prepare:  

    -- Review thematic questions on study guides for each reading. 

    -- Review your MEs and those of your classmates.  Consider what evidence you would talk about if writing a 5-paragraph essay on the sort of prompts found on the study guides.

    -- Because I look for the sames kinds of things on exam essays as in out-of-class writing (except that there's no direct citation and thus no need for documentation on a closed-book exam), you should also be THOROUGHLY FAMILIAR with the Essay Writing Tips and the CHECKLIST provided for your out-of-class writing and endeavor to apply them to your exam essay.  

    -- Pay particular attention to the instructions concerning the introductory paragraph and argumentation.  Unless I can tell from your opening paragraph which prompt you selected, what work(s) you are writing on, and precisely what you will argue about it/them, your exam essay will NOT earn GWR CERTIFICATION (and it is unlikely to earn more than a C, regardless of the quality of your observations).

    -- DON'T FORGET TO BUY AN EXAM BOOK (LARGE FORMAT, PLEASE) AND BRING IT WITH YOU TO CLASS!!!
    Study wisely (with friends)!! 
    Get enough SLEEP the night before!!! 
    And: DON'T SKIP BREAKFAST!!!!
    Contents of this and all linked pages Copyright Debora B. Schwartz, 1999-20019