Semester Exam Survival Guide- Project Description

Semester Exam Survival Guide

At the end of this semester, you will create your own Semester Exam Survival Guide — a small, personalized reference book that you will be allowed to use during a portion of your semester exam.

But you are NOT creating the Survival Guide yet.

Your Job Right Now: Prepare for Future You

Throughout the semester, pay attention to the people, events, ideas, vocabulary, dates, connections, and other information that you think you might want available when you take the semester exam.

How you keep track of those things is up to you. You might:

• Keep a running brainstorming list with page numbers.
• Put a ★ or another symbol next to important information in your text.
• Use a special highlighting system.
• Make notes on your insert pages.
• Develop your own system that works for you.

There is no required format for your brainstorming. You are deciding what you think will be useful.

Why Start Now?

At the end of the semester, you will be given a mini composition book with limited space to create your final Survival Guide.

You will have to decide:

What do I know well enough that I don't need to include?
What am I likely to forget?
What people, events, terms, and dates matter most?
What connections will help me make sense of the bigger story?
How can I organize this information so I can actually use it?

You won't want to make all of those decisions from scratch during exam week. The work you do throughout the semester will make building your Survival Guide much easier.

When Should I Work on This?

Whenever you have completed your assigned classwork and have extra time, you may work on your Survival Guide brainstorming.

Go back through your text. Review your highlighting. Look through your insert pages. Add page numbers or symbols. Think about what Future You might need.

You may hear:

“If you're finished, work on your Survival Guide.”

The Final Survival Guide

Closer to the end of the semester, you will receive the mini composition book and the complete instructions for creating your final Survival Guide.

The completed Survival Guide will be collected with your semester exam, will count as part of your semester exam grade, and may be used as a resource during a portion of the exam.

For now, don't try to build it.

Your job is simply to pay attention, think ahead, and leave good clues for Future You.