EXAM CARD INSTRUCTIONS (Covid 19 Edition)
Dr. Halbert's Courses

During the course of the semester, there will be a mid-term and final exam, along with several smaller essay exams, that require the creation of an "exam card." These cards are to be prepared beforehand following the regulations listed below. The goal is to take a question distributed before the exam and prepare notes to answer the question. You may write an outline, bullet points, and quotes (with the page numbers listed), but you may not write out the whole essay.

Requirements:

• The "card" consists of two 5" x 8" text boxes in MS Word. All text must appear inside these two boxes, which are meant to recreate a standard 5" x *" phyiscal index card.
• Your name must appear in the upper right corner of the first text box. (with a horizontal orientation so that the longest side is at top).
• If you are in a literature course or a composition course where a quote would be appropirate, you are expected to record quotes on the card with page numbers, but each quote on the card needs to appear in the essay. Quotes are expected in literature essays since you can prepare ahead of time.
• You may not write out the essay on the card, but you may outline the key points.

You need to complete your card and copy and paste it into your response to the essay online. You will need to copy and paste the card's contents into your exam in the appropriate space.

Why use exam cards?

This class is expected to be challenging without being overly advanced or specialized. Essay exams like the ones in my course are routine in upper-level English courses and in other subjects, but generally advanced warning of the question is not given, nor are cards allowed. The exam card allows you to think through the question ahead of time and to prepare as much as you like to adequately deal with the question. The result is that you have thought through the issues the question is designed to investigate while giving you control over as much as possible in preparation.