Thursday, April 11, 2013

Friday, April 12th

Dear Students,

I'm sorry for again missing class, but it seems that bad things come in threes, as they say. I will be away this weekend due to a family emergency. Please follow the directions below.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks,
Mrs. Lee

Agenda: 
1. You have completed a test with an answer sheet. Administer your test to a partner.
2. Grade and review the test.
3. Write a reflective comment below of 150 - 200 words. What did you learn taking your partner's test in regards to OMAN? Did the test challenge you to consider aspects of the text you did not consider before? Did you feel that the test was a fair measurement of your understanding? If so, how? If not, what would better evaluate your understanding of the deeper implications of the test? What were some considerations you feel your partner should have made on behalf of you, the test taker? If you were to rewrite your test, what would you have done over again?

If you complete items 1 - 3 before the end of class, you have no homework for the weekend. Be sure to turn in the test you wrote, answer key, and the answers of your classmate of your own test stapled together.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

38 comments:

  1. When taking my partner's test I realised that there are a lot of parts in the story that I do not understand or I am not very clear with. I realised that before the actual test I should look over the key parts of the book to make sure I am fully ready. I think the final exam to a certain extent is a fair measurement if we understood the book. In the final exam we created, there are a variety of questions that range from the beginning of the book to the ending of the book. One thing that would be a concern is the opinion questions. Each person has different opinions and I think sometimes it makes it hard whether or not the answer is correct. If I were to rewrite the test, I would not put any fact questions but put questions that would test one’s knowledge. This is because I think its more important to test one’s understanding than how well one can memorize facts of the book.

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  2. When I took my friend’s OMAM exam, I learned that I am well prepared for the OMAM exam. Although the essay question took some time, I have the general idea for all of the questions on the exam. However during the peer exam, I found out that there were some aspects in the text I didn’t recognize while I was reading the book. I think this process of discovering new texts actually helps you to get more into and familiar with the book. In addition, I feel that this exam was a fair measurement of my understanding. The questions on the exam were neither hard nor easy. This led me to believe that I have a good understanding of the book. Although the exam was well made, I feel like if the test maker made the answer sheet for the essay topics it would have been a excellent exam. However, overall, the test was excellent and well made.

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  3. When I took my friend's exam, I realized that I knew more parts of the story than I thought. It still did challenge me to look deeper into my memory to recall some of the events of the book though. I feel that my understanding of the book was, for the most part, accurately examined in the test, though there were some parts that were quite confusing. It would help me evaluate my deeper understanding of the text if there were more plot questions to challenge whether I actually understand the story or not. My partner should keep in mind that we do not remember specific facts, only concepts. If I was to redo my test, I would make the questions deeper and more thought-provoking.

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  4. When I took my friend's OMAM test, I realized that I actually know almost every detail described in the book. Unfortunately, I also realized I was unable to think of many of the bigger and more important things, like figuring out what certain things could be symbolizing. My partner's test did in fact help me to consider parts of the text that I never really put much thought into. Her review test guided me to look at the bigger picture of things, and try to figure out the meaning behind what the director and author might have been trying to do. Furthermore, I do believe this test was a great measurement of my understanding of this book. I think this because many of her multiple choice questions were based off of the big, and small events in the book. Some of the answers to her questions couldn't just be found off of Spark notes or some online website, you had to have read the book in order to have answered the questions correctly. Some considerations I feel my partner should have made for me, the test taker, would have to be making her test not only based off of questions about the story, but also more about my personal input on the plot and my opinions on things that happened. If I had to rewrite my test, I would definitely make it easier. I put challenging "personal opinion" questions for the short answer section, and made every question be answered with 2-3 questions. I'll be sure to make it more simple next time.

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  5. When I took my friend's OMAM exam, I noticed that I understood most of the general concepts much better than I thought I did. Although I did get a good idea of the main concepts, however what I did struggle on was to bring out a bigger meaning to the deeper questions. There were many profound meanings throughout the whole book and I seemed to struggle to be able to grab onto those deep ideas. The quiz that my friend had created was sure a good way to test my abilities if I was able to understand the key concepts on the novel. Therefore, I feel that my peer’s exam was sure a great way to display my understanding of the book. Overall the exam my friend made was great! He questioned about many of the concepts along with the profound ideas that were ideal in the novel. However, some questions were just basically fact questions and those could be hard to recall. Especially questions that were given from the earlier chapters since it has been quite a while that we have taken up those. If I were to rewrite my test, I would have give more questions about more profound meanings in the story. Rather than giving important but simple fact questions that just test if you read the novel, it would be important for me to see if my peer can dive into the deeper meanings.

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  6. While taking my partner's test I realized that there was a lot of vocabulary used in only the story that I did not know the definitions of. Therefore, I believe that the test was an unfair measurement of my understanding of the book because the author had tested me on a lot of vocabulary words that are only relevant to the story. I believe testing me on more common words that aren't specific to this book, would've been more useful for me as they could come out in the future. Some aspects of the test that made me think about the setting and character development in the test which I had not thought about before. For example, the question "How is the setting used to contrast with or to enhance a mood?" had me think about how the author had set up the settings in certain moments such as Lennie's death and how it had all been leading up for that one moment. I wish the creator of the test had written more relevant questions as for example, "How is racism portrayed in regards to Crooks and in general?" can be answered with a racial description of Crooks and how he is treated, however, racism is not portrayed "generally" and is too broad of a question to ask. If I were to rewrite the test, I would make the vocabulary section harder as drawing the lines made it too easy for the test-taker to complete.

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  7. While taking my friend's OMAM exam, I realized that I hadn't really analyzed this book for what is worth. I nailed most of the plot questions, but in terms of analysis, this quiz was difficult. Thinking of ideas on the fly was difficult as well. I think that my test was fair enough, although a specific vocab list should be defined before we take a test like this. I also think that my test should have had a bit more of analysis. Everything else was spot-on, including the essay questions. I think that my partner couldn't have done a better job, other than including a bit more analysis. Most of the test was about the plot itself.

    If I were to re-write my test, I would make it a bit less long. I would also make sure that my test would hold less about the plot, but more about our own analysis of the plot, and our own thoughts about the implications and values that are shown to us in this book.

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  8. Taking my partner's test as well as making my own, I realized many things about OMAM. First of all, the test I took helped me think about the novel once more. She helped me revise all the main concepts we covered together as a class, which were the most important aspects of the novel. This definitely was a fair measurement of my knowledge of the novel since it asked me about the storyline itself as well as the main concepts I would have to know in order to understand the novel completely. The test helped me consider the fact that I have learned so much over the course of a few months about the novel, Of Mice and Men, and about many topics in the novel that are applicable in my daily life as well. Second, I realized that there are, in fact, a fair amount of vocabulary words that I skimmed over. By contextualization, I was able to understand the words, but as the test brings attention to the vocabulary words out of context, it was hard to figure out what they mean. Thankfully, my partner made a test with a different interpretation of vocabulary, which I knew all of since they were vocabulary pertaining to the story. I think this was a much better way to test my knowledge and a much fairer measurement for the understanding of the novel. I believe that asking about the storyline itself as well as the important and prominent concepts in the novel is the best way to measure our understanding. Some considerations my partner should have made are making some multiple choice questions since there was a lot of writing required for the test. Also, she asked a lot of open-ended questions consisting of opinion as a story question, which does not fully test my knowledge on the novel itself. If I were to rewrite my test, I would input one opinion question since I didn't consider any in my test. Also, I would make the vocabulary section easier by using information from the book to make vocabulary questions like my partner did.

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  9. Creating my own OMAM test, and then taking my friend’s test was a new way to test myself with my knowledge of the novel, and also have a glimpse of my friend’s view of the novel. Taking my partner’s test gave me confidence on my knowledge on the novel, but also made me realize that I had concentrated only on the topics of friendship between George and Lennie. The test has allowed me to consider topics outside of the main theme, such as misogyny of Curley’s wife, and the author’s use of foreshadowing and setting. I believe that the test was a fair measurement of my knowledge, with plentiful amounts of challenging questions. The vocabulary words were quite challenging, as they were words I had heard many times but never knew the complete definition. Some questions of the test also asked my opinion, which I thought was a very interesting way to think instead of writing through memorization. It allowed me to apply my knowledge to use. The test was a great experience. However, I would like to give some feedback on the essay topics on the back of the page. Some of the essay questions were very similar with each other. If I were to rewrite the test, I would create topics that would make my test taker think deeply before answering.

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  10. Taking the test helped increase my perspective of the importance of setting, especially in a story like OMAM with a twist at the end. It also helped me realize where the American Dream fits into different parts of the plot line. Although it became a failure for the main characters, it was ultimately their main decided goal that they were striving for. The test showed me how George was both a good friend and a bad friend to Lennie, and the many ways that this alone can be interpreted. The time shown in the book was not very long, so we can only assume that George had taken to like Lennie beforehand. I feel that it was a fair measure of my understanding. It had many sections, which helped to challenge different parts of my mind in regards to the text. Also, instead of having short one-word answers, having questions requiring a sentence or longer obviously showed whether I had accurately interpreted the text or not. I feel that the test maker could have implied which questions could be opinionated; all of our takes on the story differ at least slightly. What I could have done different is to have added example from the text to my questions in order to better aid the test taker to understand what I am implying in each question.

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  11. Taking the test made me realized that I didn’t really analyze the novel as deep as I could have. The plots questions were pretty easy and I was able to remember what happened in the book and answer the questions, but the analysis question really made me think. I had to think of what we did in class and the other students’ analysis to answer the questions, especially the last question. It asked whether George was telling the truth to Lennie before killing him. I had to think of this technically and analytically. On one hand George was lying, because they really did not get the land, but maybe George was describing heaven to Lennie, to ease the pain of his death.

    I thought Albert’s test was pretty fair. The test was very creative, having variety of activities. For example, in the vocabulary section, it asked for a sentence with the word, not just the definition.

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  12. Taking the test helped me realize that I did not analyze the novel deeply enough. Though the plot short story questions was very easy to answer, some of the analysis questions were hard and had a lot of thinking to do. Taking the test, my partner and I mostly had the same questions but different opinions on the answer (especially the last question with the big twist). Also, the questions had many opinion questions where I pretend to be in that exact situation, and the choices I would have made. These short story and essay questions helped me understand and challenge the different parts of the story. I feel that that the test maker could have been a bit more clear on the vocabulary with context clues. Overall, the questions were very well-structured and very clear so it was easy to answer.

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  13. When taking my partner's exam, I found the vocabulary question challenging. My usual strategy for unknown words was to find its general meaning by the context. I learned that it is important to find the exact meanings as well, since I had some difficulty answering the questions on my partner's exam. I've also seen a different understanding of my partner's when reading his questions. I found some difficulty in tracing back my memory for the short answer questions since I tend to mix facts around and get confused which one is which. I also believe that the vocabulary is not a good representation of my vocabulary skills since they were words that were generally new to me. I also believe that since this was student made exam, the questions reflect the opinions of the student. I found that besides the strictly contextual questions, all short answers could be correct with justification. I feel on my own exam, I would've rewritten the short answer questions to be more thought provoking and less reflective of my own interests and opinions. I enjoyed the experience of students testing each other in a leisurely manner.

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  14. After taking my friend's OMAM test, I learned that I was able to solve the plot-based questions without difficulty. However I was struggling on the thought-based and analysis questions. Although I had all the ideas organized, I had trouble reflecting my opinion. I believe this process of taking another person's test was able to help me in many ways. It taught me that I still had many things to go over in this novel, and practice my skills on reflecting my opinions.
    My partner(Joachim)'s test was well-made. Questions were written in a way that was easy to understand. If I was able to rewrite my test, I would make my questions more based on the opinion of the test taker so he or she would be able to reflect their thoughts.

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  15. While taking my friend's OMAM exam, I realized that I hadn't really analyzed this book for what is worth. The short answer questions were quite straight forward and I could answer most of them quite instantly. However, the essay questions were more than challenging. I was shocked on how little i could write for an answer. Thus, I read some part of the book again and tried to improve. If i was to change the exam, I would increase the difficulty of the short answer questions and lower the difficulty of the essay questions. Another thing to consider are the opinion questions. They are the most challenging and the most effective to force one to think and analyze the story. The test maker could have indicated which questions were opinion based questions. This would greatly increase the understanding of the question for the test taker. Overall, the exam was fairly well done but could use some slight improvements as stated before.

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  16. When I took my friends OMAM test i found many parts were really hard to understand and it was really hard to figure out the vocb on the test. While i was taking the test i found that many of the questions that i took were really reasonable to answer. The wording of the questions were easy to understand and also the way the test was formatted was very nice to see. Taking a different person's test was also a way for me to understand how other's think and how they like taking tests. For me the test was a new way to understand the text from OMAM. If i was to rewrite my test i would have multiple choice questions and also have better essay questions.

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  17. (Substitute test = Essay)

    When writing my essay, I realized that I surprisingly understood OMAM well. I think, for the most part, I understood the text. The essay caused me to look at certain parts in a new light, like how Crooks wasn't just a paragon of racism, but an example of the fallible aspects of the American dream. The essay was a fair assessment of my understanding, and I feel that it helped me truly read the text to evaluate it properly and study it thoroughly. I think if I was to take another person's test, I would be prepared and would be able to do reasonably well on it. From what I can understand out of my topics though, I think I should've chosen ones that were easy to talk to; many were seemingly strange topics that would be difficult to assess and write about properly. I want to help people think critically, but I do not want to challenge them to the point of stress.

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    1. Hi Ben! i liked your statement. I like that you made new observations by creating the text.

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  18. This test gave me a chance to revisit my ideas on the text and many aspects of the story. The interesting thing I noticed about the test system is that the test I took included similar questions to the test I have made. By taking my classmate’s test, I have realized that I have, however, missed out on many points while reading the novel and I got the chance to go over the part of the story again. Some factors that I didn’t really like about my classmate’s test were that some questions were asking about the same topic and the test didn’t cover all aspects of the novel. I wanted the classmate to make various types of questions, which will challenge me, but the questions were pretty much monotonous. If I could rewrite my test, I would give more spaces between my questions so that the test taker will have more space to answer the questions (I expected him to have a separate paper to answer the questions but the taker didn’t realize my expectation).

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  20. Whilst taking Brian Oh's test, I found that the vocab and short answer questions didn't require much deep thinking. What I liked specifically was that he incorporated a lot of "your opinion" questions; which ultimately made me reflect not only on the story but on my thoughts as well. This made taking the exam much more amusing and brisk. I found a lot of similarities between my questions and his, and this made me think that we centered most of the questions on the same concepts - the most "important" in the story. If i were to rewrite the test, I would make the essay questions more general because at times the questions were very specific, and I couldn't elaborate on them much.

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  21. Hyunna’s test really had me think of how the basic ideas in the book really bring everything together. It also made me think that good literature is not defined only by deep insight and difficult vocabulary but writing that actually speaks to the reader and gets a message through. The simplicity John Steinbeck’s book is what makes it so popular. This was a new thought to me. I always knew that Steinbeck’s book was a great portrayal of basic human traits, but I was never able to come up with a complete thought in words. I believe that Hyunna’ s test was fair. It was a mix of easy, hard, and thought provoking questions. If it were to be an actual quiz, it would be fair for the student who studied. I believe that Hyunna thought of how the test taker would react towards the test while she was making it. If I were to rewrite my test, I would include context for the vocabulary section. I think it was too hard for people to just know words and guess from four choices without any context.

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    1. A careful evaluation of Hyunna's work. Thank you for the details.

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  22. From taking my partners version of the test, it was seen that my questions were based more off of the factual evidence of the book while the test I took from him was written much differently with more open-ended answers. I felt somewhat challenged, but the questions that I was tested on we had already discussed in class before, but now it was open for my own words. We tested each other on completely different aspects of the book. Seeing that both of our tests were so different I don’t think it is fair at all. The fact that mine was so factual and my partners so open, it shows that we have different strengths when it comes to understanding texts. To making the test better, I would have liked to see a greater variety of questions. Like I said, the questions on my partners test, I felt that we had already gone over them in class before.

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  23. The test that my partner made was very interesting compared to mine. While I had a test that could have multiple answers that are open to interpretation, my partner had a much more closed test based on book facts. I do feel that I do really understand the book even if I do not know the quote a question is referencing. I feel that the best way to be judged on my understanding of the text would be through some sort of exam that allows for multiple interpretations. Although a books plot might not change, that’s not what makes it interesting. The parts of a book that add flavor and allow the reader to more deeply immerse themselves in the book are the parts that are fluid; The parts that are up for interpretation such as the Characters, Physical appearance, symbolism, etc. I think the biggest test aspect that must be considered for an english exam is the understanding of the text in the test taker’s eyes. If a book is about a group of animals fighting for freedom, it could be interpreted as racial equality, female right, Gay rights, etc. The test must understand the flexibility of a book. If I rewrote my test, I would keep it as fluid as I had my current one, although possibly change the wording of the questions as it is kind of confusing.

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  24. The first thing that I realized is that Of Mice and Men is that it was structured like a play, I did not notice that before, but once the question appeared in the test, I really took notice of the way the story was structured. Another thing that I quickly noticed in the story was the fact that Curley’s wife was a much more dynamic character than Curley, even though she is treated as his possession the entire time. These are probably the only things that I could not notice before but have realized after taking Elizabeth’s test. I do not, however, feel that the test was a fair measurement of my understanding on the book and movie Of Mice and Men. This is because all the tests were created different with different creators and different questions, some of which may vary in difficulty. Some things that I think would make the tests’ effectiveness would be for them to all be the same test and to have some sort of preparation technique given to us beforehand to at least have an idea on the vocabulary that we would being tested on. I believe that the only way the tests would be fair is if the were all the same and contain the same questions.

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  25. From taking my partners test i have seen that the questions were based on logical thinking . Although the test had questions that we went throw class/test it had questions that made me think about new thing and ideas about Of Mice and Men. I felt a challenge by doing this test even though if it looks easy it still makes you think. The test was fare making the reader start to remember all the discussions in class/test and all the learning Of Mice and Men. I think the maker of the test should have done questions more not from class, more questions that we have never discussed .
    My test was more deeper then the test i made although my test was fare and it was based on questions we did not do in class. Although my test was hard i still think it was fare.

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  26. By taking my partner’s test, I learned that my partner seemed to have read and interpreted the novel from a whole different point of view. This was proven by the fact that many of her questions, both the ones that were plot-related as well as the ones that weren’t were very different from mine and focused on different parts of the novel. This test definitely challenged me to consider aspects of the text I had not considered before, because many of them made me stop and think back to the text from a fresh perspective. I feel that the test was a fair measurement of my understanding, because although it was difficult in the sense that it was very thought-provoking, the questions themselves were not impossible to do, but they were still challenging. I think my partner could have given me a bit more space to write some of my answers, because I had to cram my writing for some of the questions in order to get down everything I wanted to say. Other than, that, my partner’s test was very stimulating. If I were to rewrite my test, I would have included a short story question about characterization and also have added more space between my question, because looking at the completed test, I could see that she also had to squish her writing into the limited space.

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  27. When I was taking my partners OMAM exam, I did not really learn anything new in regards to OMAM. There were some short answer questions from which I gained a new perspective on the novel, but other than that I did not really learn anything new. The essay questions were fairly standard, and for their answers I did not really learn anything new. This test was well designed, but it didn’t really make me think outside of the box or anything. The only notable aspect I can think of about this test was the fact that some questions could have been explained better, as there were some questions in which I got the ‘wrong’ answer because I did not fully understand the questions. I cannot, however, be certain if it was because of a poor explanation or because of a new viewpoint, as I do not have the test with me at this time. Regardless, I do not think there were any outstanding observations that I could have made from my partners test.

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  28. Through taking my partner’s test and making my own, I became aware of the fact that I had neglected the analysis of many minor roles such as Slim and Candy’s dog. I was also hesitant in answering questions that pertained to the overarching theme of misogyny, and found it hard to explain the relation between Burns’ “To a Mouse” and Steinbecks’ Of Mice and Men in a concise manner. The test helped me recollect the ideas that we had gone through in class. I definitely thought that my partner’s test a comprehensive study guide and a fair measurement of my understanding. Her questions compelled me to extract memories of previous class discussions, lectures and the movie, and allowed me to think beyond the surface of the novella. However one aspect of the test my partner could have improved on was the vocabulary section of the test. Without giving me the word in context, I could not figure out its meaning unless I looked it up in the dictionary. On the other hand, if I were to modify and improve my test, I would rid my test of “Why do you think…” type of questions, in view of the fact that we essentially cannot assess the opinion of a person. If I were to rewrite the test, I would focus more on the fundamental concepts of the novella rather than straying off to questions that are completely reliant on the opinion of the test taker.

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  29. After taking my Hanna Ough's test, I realized that our tests were very similar. Our vocabulary sections were both quite simple, however our remaining questions were less plot based and more concept based. We both incorporated the main ideas of the text, and required the test taker to think deeply when answering. Also, there was much personal reflection required when taking this test. This made it more amusing for me, for I was able to talk about my life in addition to just focusing on the microcosm of the text. This test helped me to look at all of the major concepts of the text. If I were to change something about my exam, I would make the essay questions less specific so that I could reflect more and expand my ideas, rather than staying in a narrow topic. I think that making this test really helped test myself on my knowledge of OMAM

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  30. While I was taking my partners test, the first difference that I noticed was the style of the short story questions. When I was making my test, I focused more on the analytical and factual part of the stories, but the questions I was answering made me think more.The short answer questions were quite straight forward and I could answer most of them quite instantly. However, the essay questions were more than challenging. I was shocked on how little i could write for an answer.The essays really got stuck in my mind, and made me weigh my thoughts multiple times. I feel that it was a fair measure of my understanding. It had many sections, which helped to challenge different parts of my mind in regards to the text. Also, instead of having short one-word answers, having questions requiring a sentence or longer obviously showed whether I had accurately interpreted the text or not. Overall, the test was a good way to test my knowledge not only in a factual way, but also a more psychological manner as well.

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  31. Taking my partner's test made me notice aspects of the novel that were different from what I had previously analyzed. My partner's questions were more straightforward and factual, whereas mine focused on specific analytic insights of the text. The test I took helped me recall specific details in the plot, characters and setting, which gave me a better understanding of the scenes in which the words were being spoken. The combination of the my analysis of the text and my partner's detail-oriented questions heled me gain a deeper insight to the literature piece. I think the test did not challenge my understanding of the novel greatly but it tested how much I remembered about the specific scenes and events. Since the essay questions still required deep analysis, overall I think the test was an excellently balanced evaluation of my understanding of the text. If I were to rewrite my test, I would decide to include a few more factual, specific questions to my short-answer section because details are also extremely important to a reader's understanding of the novel.

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  32. I had read the book of mice and men several times, so I guess I could say that I had been a bit underestimating the book when I had taken the test. While taking the test I realized that there were a lot of advanced vocabulary that I do not use in a regular basis which surprised me. Furthermore Through the test I was able to venture more deeply in to the book by thinking about difficult questions noticing again how much I had underestimated Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Additionally while taking the test I had thought about my own test and found more ways to better my own test. I thank that I took this test, since without it I wouldn’t have felt the reassurance that even though the exam may be difficult it would not be too far out of reach if I were to be prepared enough.

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