WCA exam study guide 2019

Post date: Dec 21, 2018 12:40:03 PM

Worried about the exam? First mull this over…

“The correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling,

but wood that needs igniting.”

—Plutarch

That’s right, it was Plutarch and not Yeats who is the true author of our school’s guiding principle. The quote also articulates the philosophy driving this exam, namely that having knowledge of the past is not enough by itself, the real test is your ability to use it as inspiration to address today’s problems.

It's a 100 point final... It counts as 20% of your fall grade. It's designed to test your ability to use historical knowledge to solve problems, your ability to defend your ideas against others, and your ability to read and apply it your knowledge of the past.

Study the following...

What is covered?

1. The wisdom from history rules you wrote in your presentations, your essays, the rules you voted on in class, and the created in groups. You should have most of them in your notes.

2. Learn the following about the rebels we've covered from the ancient and medieval worlds - in short the "rebels," selected Romans and influential Byzantines, Medieval Europeans, and Muslims. For each study the following:

1. motives/goals, 2. actions/policies, and 3. consequences/legacy.

Here are the suspects along with the people who presented on them:

Early ancient rebels not from Greece or Rome:

1. Urukagina - Smith
2. Hammurabi - Salvatore,
3. Hatshepsut -
4. Moses - Bass,
5. Cyrus II of Persia - Sutton,
6. Siddhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha -
1. Ashoka (sp. "Asoka" on abc-clio, primary sources) -
   1. Confucius (孔子, Kǒngzǐ) - Rodrigues,

Greeks:

1. Pythia or the Delphic Oracle -
   1. Thales of Miletos - Perretz,
   2. Archimedes - Macri,
2. Hippocrates - Stichter,
3. Herodotus - Benton,
4. Aesop - Litz,
5. Lykurgus of Sparta, (sp. "Lycurgus," "Lykurgos") -
   1. Solon & Cleisthenes (sources: abc-clio "Athenian Democracy," Aristotle) -
   2. Socrates - Stewart,
   3. Plato - Darmofal,
   4. Alexander III of Macedon - Alvarez

Romans:

1. Publius Valerius Poplicola & Lucius Junius Brutus (sources: Plutarch, Livy, a secondary source) -
1. Lucius Sicinius Vellutus (sources: abc-clio "conflict of the orders," Livy) -
   1. The Gracchus Brothers, aka the Graci -
2. Spartacus - Filanowski
   1. Julius Caesar - Miljkovic
   2. Octavian -
   3. Rabbi Yeshua, aka Jesus - Schweitzer
   4. Peter and Paul of Tarsus -
3. Hypatia -
   1. Diocletian -

Our list of medieval rebels: (the yellow ones are the ones most likely to appear on the final)

Byzantium:

1. Constantine I - d. 337
2. Saint Nicholas - d. 343
3. Theodosius I - d. 395
4. Saint Simeon - d. 459
5. Justinian I - d. 565
6. Theodora - d. 548
7. Callinicus of Heliopolis (not in abc-clio) - c. 7th century
8. Basil II - d. 1025
9. Alexius I (sp. "Alexios") - d. 1118
10. Anna Komnene (sp. "Comnena") - d. 1153

Medieval Europe:

1. Clovis - d. 511
2. Benedict of Nursia - d. 547
3. Charlemagne - Christmas day, 800
4. Peter Abelard & Héloïse - d. 1116
5. Pope Gregory VII & Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (Investiture Crisis) - 1073
6. William the Conqueror (or the Bastard) - d. 1087
7. Pope Urban II - d. 1099
8. Peter the Hermit - d. 1115
9. Tancred of Hauteville - d. 1112
10. Roger Bacon - d. 1292
11. Marco Polo - d. 1324
12. Wat Tyler - d. 1381
13. Geoffrey Chaucer - d. 1400
14. Vlad the Impaler - d. 1477

The Muslim Umma:

1. Muhammad - d. 632
2. abu Bakr, Ali, & Uthman - c. 7th century
3. Harun al Rashid and al Mamun - c. 800
4. Al-Khwarizmi - d. 847
5. Fatima al-Fihri (not in abc-clio) - d. 859
6. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) - d. 1037
7. Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen) - d. 1040
8. Ibn Rushd (Averroes) - d. 1198
9. Moses Maimonides - d. 1204
10. Hassan-i Sabbah (also sp. Hasan-e-Sabbah) - c. 12th c.
11. Jalal al-Din al-Rumi (Rumi) - d. 1273
12. Mansa Musa - d. 1337
13. Ibn Battuta - d. 1369
14. Ibn Khaldun - d. 1406

Related concepts in Byzantium: Princeps, Nicean Creed, Orthodox Christianity, Greek Fire

Related concepts in Medieval Europe: feudalism, fealty, fief, primogeniture, Catholicism, manorialism, monasticism, crusading, medieval universities

Related concepts in the Muslim Umma: Islam, 5 Pillars, Caliph, House of Wisdom, African slave trade, founding of the Ottoman Empire

3. Something about the current event you’ll write about in your dialogue. You will select the topic during the week and I will provide a packet.

What's the format?

Part I: Mystery Quotes…50 points - choose 5

You'll be several given short quotations from primary documents with which you'll need to do the following, each in only one sentence…

1. Summarize the quote in your own words.

2. Identify the writer and prove it.

3. Explain why the quote matters - link the person to an important idea, event, or key question that impacts the world today, or better yet, your life.

4. Respond to the author. Are they right? Why or why not? Prove your point with evidence.

Part II: Applying Wisdom from History to Today's Problems… 50 points

Here you get to experiment with a genre of literature that made Plato famous, creating a fictitious conversation to solve a current problem. You will write a dialogue between yourself and four other historical characters, each from a different society discussing what to do about a current problem in the world.

Characters: Four of the five characters will be unannounced, but you will have two or three choices from four boxes to select. You are expected to be the fifth voice in your dialogue, and it is your job to advocate for the rules you created and defended in your essay against your opponents, the rules that were agreed upon in our seminars, and the rules you created as groups through your study of medieval history.

The current problem: You'll be given three short articles about a current problem, one we shall choose in class. You will have a packet to read before the exam and extra points will be awarded for high-quality MUSQing. If you are so inclined, you are welcome to do further research about the problem on your own time prior to the exam.

W4 dialogue exam packet

W8 dialogue exam packet

Scoring: Points are awarded for

1. accuracy of the five characters' views and use of facts cited

2. all character’s use of evidence from BOTH history AND current events

3. illustrate areas of agreement and disagreement between all the characters

4. and the dialogue must have a point. It must conclude with some sort of useful and instructive resolution.

HOW do I prepare?

Doing anything but these strategies is probably a bad way to prepare...

Read over your notes and to make the list specified under number two...

2. Link people and events to the new ideas they're famous for. Can you link them to one another? Canst thou Quizlet? Build your own, yo.

3. Identify why the people and events on your list matter. How did they change the world and how have those changes affected (or continue to affect) your life? Close your eyes and point to a random rebel. Do you have something for their motives? What about their actions and why they matter today?

4. Figure out what the people in your matrixes would say about the current events problem for the dialogue.

5. Look up stuff you've forgotten on abc-clio.

6. MUSQ the current events packet carefully. Read it multiple times, imagining how the different historical figures we’ve studied would process it.

7. Collaborate with other students who you can actually be productive with. Share info, quiz each other, and correct each other's mistakes.