Exam Study Plan

     Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday  

           English I is my second exam on Tuesday. To study for this exam, I will break down each unit and study one specific topic each day that way I can really focus on the subject, but also have enough time to study for my other exams as well. The topics I will cover are: traits of good reading/writing and vocabulary; literary analysis: features and styles; working with quotations and conclusions;  Nervous Conditions; elements of research; poetry; Macbeth and elements of drama. Dr. D has several PowerPoints and Word documents that are key to studying for the exam. If you are missing some of the notes, you can email me or comment on this blog post and I will send them to you. 

Sunday: Traits of Good Reading/Writing and Vocabulary. 

           I put these two topics together because they are both pretty small and the Wordly Wise quiz is Monday so I need to study that anyway. I will reread the handout that we have on the traits of good reading/writing, then I would writing them down again because writing things over and over again helps me to remember it, and finally I will try to apply them. For the vocabulary, I will quiz myself with the flashcards that we made for class and then I will try to use the words in a sentence (one that is not on my card). 

Monday: Literary Analysis

           Reviewing for the literary analysis is especially important since we will have to write one about the things that we read this year for the exam. I will read the notes that we took in class on the features and styles of literary analyses. There is a section in the Norton on literary analyses that I will read and annotate. I will then look at my literary analysis of the short story and the comments and think about the ways I could improve it. Next, I will think about ways to connect the reading we have done this year in preparation for the essay.

Tuesday: Working with quotations and conclusions

           Quoting and concluding will be crucial to the literary analysis essay so I will study the notes that we took on both of these topics. Since I have had trouble with quoting and concluding before,  I will look at my past essays to see what I did and what I need to correct. Then, I will practice both of these skills by trying to quote things for articles (for example, a Yahoo! article) and I will rewrite some of the conclusions from my other essays. 

Wednesday: Nervous Conditions 

           Since we spent a lot of time reading and talking about Nervous Conditions, I do not think reviewing for this will be too incredibly difficult. I will start off by studying the notes we took on postcolonial literature (its characteristics) and general notes on the book (social/temporal/psychological setting, characters, and meanings of the title). Next, I will look at the questions we had to answer for each chapter. Then, I will review the main points of the book, such as theme and reasons for the organization of the book. 

Thursday: Elements of research 

          Studying for the research portion of the exam should not take too long. First, I will look at the research prezi that Dr. D has posted online. It includes an overview of the research process, notes about plagiarism, and a review of quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Then, I will at the list of transition terms and list of words for introducing summaries and quotations (also posted on the web). I will end by looking at my own research paper and noting the things I could improve.

Friday: Poetry

           Poetry will be the most difficult subject for me to study for because I found this to be the most challenging unit that we covered. I will begin by making flashcards for the literary terms. Then, I will try to memorize how meter works, study the handout of TP-CAST and how to read a poem. I will end by looking at all of the poems that annotated in the poetry booklet. 

Saturday: Macbeth

           Macbeth will be the easiest to review for since it is the unit that we have most recently done. I will go over the notes we took on the elements of drama and make flashcards for the key play terms. I will then look at the handout on the characters of the play and study my annotations. Because we will be finishing the book this coming week, I can ask any further questions I have in class.  

*On Sunday, I will take a break from English so that I can study for my exam on Monday. 

Monday: Everything

           On Monday, I will review everything that I have been studying, especially things that gave me trouble. I will not spend too much time studying this day because I have my biology exam on the same day and I will need all of the time I can get to study for that. 

Outside Reading Reflection

In the past, I have always enjoyed reading and I usually have no trouble finishing books. Unfortunately, that did not stand true this year, when it really counted. I had a tremendous amount of trouble getting through all of the books I attempted to read. It was not because I wasn't interested in the book itself, because I found them all to be very interesting. What I did read, I enjoyed but I had difficulty staying focused and reading for an extended amount of time. I hope that this struggle is just a phase that I will outgrow soon. And when I do, I want to go back and finish some of the books that I did not make it through.

Even though I wasn't able to finish many books this year, I still believe myself to be a good reader. Last year while reading Romeo and Juliet, I discovered that I was adept at recognizing symbols and themes, and their meanings. This was further proven to me, during the first semester of freshman English class while reading The Lord of the Flies, which is an allegory. I have recently started reading a book called, Beatrice and Virgil, because my aunt (who is a book publisher) gave it to me for my birthday. It is by the same person who wrote The Life of Pi, and it is an allegorical story. I enjoy this fact because I have fun analyzing the story and looking for the deeper meaning. After I finish this book, my mother wants me to read one of her favorite Stephen King novels. 

65 minutes of Macbeth

85 minutes fo Beatrice and Virgil 

 

From the Perspective of Lady Macbeth

I want to be queen. I want to rule all of Scotland. No. I will be queen and I will rule all of Scotland. Now that my husband has killed Duncan, this is very much a possibility. Of course it did take quite a push from me for him to do it. That is his problem: he still has morals and ethics. I'm glad I no longer have a conscience anymore; it makes it much easier to get what I want. Macbeth really should just follow in my footsteps and let nothing stop him from getting to the top.

Even though Duncan is not a problem anymore, we still have his sons to worry about, although I do not think they will be much of an issue. They are scared someone is out to kill them too and have fled to separate countries for now; Malcolm to England and Donalbain to Ireland. This have raised suspicion and now there are rumors going around town that they are the ones who killed their father. Needless to say, I cannot be thankful enough that this has dragged the attention away from Macbeth for the meantime. I just hope that if and when the time comes, and we have another obstacle in our path to the throne to get around, that my husband, Macbeth, will stand by my side and let nothing stop us.