POLI 100                   AMERICAN GOVERNMENT                                N. Miller

            The in-class midterm tests are entirely in a multiple-choice format, but the questions are designed primarily to test your understanding of concepts and general propositions, not your recollection of dates, names, or other factual details. Some multiple-choice questions from the quizzes may be repeated on the tests. But, more than the quiz questions, test questions will require you to relate material introduced in different topics of the course, and some of the questions will require you to “stop and think” even when you have good mastery of the course material. And if you haven't mastered the course material, you may miss some questions even when you have some relevant knowledge that might be sufficient to get you at least partial credit on a written question. Of course, you will also get other questions right (as a result of lucky guesses) even though your relevant knowledge is incomplete or even nonexistent. On average, students in the past have answered about 60-65% of similar questions correctly, and this approximately indicates the range of “C” grades on these tests. No one is expected to answer all questions correctly, and it is not necessary to answer all (or even almost all) questions correctly in order to get a high grade.

            Each of the three in-class tests will consist of about 35-40 multiple choice questions. You will mark your answers on a separate machine-readable answer sheet. The answer sheet should be marked with a soft No. 2 PENCIL. Therefore, you should bring such a pencil with you on the day of each test. You should also have an eraser, so that you can change an answer if you want to.

            For each question, you should mark the one best answer; in practice, this may mean the one least doubtful answer. Your grade will be based on the total number of questions that you answer correctly; therefore it is to your advantage to guess when you are not sure of the best answer. If you find a question unclear, you will be able to write (on the back of the question booklet) your reasons for thinking that it is unclear and your reasons for answering as you did. If what you say is persuasive, you may get partial or full credit for the question even if you did not mark the “correct” answer on the answer sheet.

            You will have 50 minutes to complete each test. It is very unlikely that you will be unable to complete the test in the time allowed. You are urged to work through the test deliberately and carefully, using all, or almost all, of the time that is available to you.

            To help you review for the test, you should make sure that you have a Study Guide for each topic and complete set of quizzes (with answers). Remember also that all the PowerPoint slides used in class may be found on the course website. If you have followed the “Recommended Study Procedure” outlined on p. 2 of the syllabus, the notes you have accumulated should be useful in preparing for each midterm test. (They will be even more useful in preparing for the final exam). Remember that your quiz grades will be averaged in with your test grade(with each quiz counting 1/10 of the test), but only if this helps you.

            You will be asked to check a box indicating whether or not you want your test grade posted as soon as it is available on the course website. Your grade will be identified by the five digits (following the two letters) of your campus ID number. Since grades for the two sections will be combined into a single list and displayed in numerical order of ID numbers (not the underlying alphabetical order of last names), the posting will preserve a high degree of anonymity. However, if you do not wish to have your grade posted, do not check the box and contact me (in person or by email using your UMBC email account) to get your test grade.

            There will be an optional class session in the free period (MWF 12-1) a week or so after each test. If you attend this session, a copy of your answer sheet will be temporarily returned to you, and we will go over the test question by question, so that you can see which questions you got right and which wrong.