Please share your thoughts below!
What was the toughest final exam/paper you ever took/wrote? (Be sure to include the course and year in your answer!)
Please share your thoughts below!
What was the toughest final exam/paper you ever took/wrote? (Be sure to include the course and year in your answer!)
The most challenging, but also the best finals I ever took were my oral finals with Ron Christenson. Sitting in his office in the comfy rocking chair, you would have to discuss with him everything you learned over the semester. An intensive experience for both the student and the professor, but he taught me more than I probably learned from any other professor at Gustavus.
2011 – Comparative Politics – Three Country Paper !
I remember my History 101 final with Professor Doniver Lund right before Christmas break. I was so excited to be done, and then head home for the holidays. I thought I had it down. It was a blue book exam. The level of difficulty of this exam surprised me! I don’t remember the exact verbiage, but we had to compare/contrast the philosophies of Jefferson vs. Hamilton on several points. . No doubt this had been mentioned in class, but I had no idea I had to have these points committed to memory. I wrote and wrote and probably made no sense. I didn’t do well on that final. Things got better as I advanced through my Gustavus years. Freshman year December finals are a huge wake up call!
I’d have to say that the toughest paper I wrote at Gustavus was my freshman year in Claus Beuchman’s English seminar. We had to write an analysis of a Shakespearean sonnet — and I’d never done anything like it before. It was terrifying and I learned a lot. Senior Thesis in Political Science would come in a close second (but wasn’t anywhere near as terrifying)!
The Reformation (2007) with Troy Osborne. Sophomore year, I think it was the largest paper with the shortest time frame in my limited experience (at that time). I remember pulling an all nighter, then drinking a large McDonald’s coffee at 6am, going to class (taking some finals), and feeling my heart beat so fast I actually thought I was going to die. I aced my finals and wound up getting one of the top grades in the class. I’ve since sworn off all nighters (and large coffees), but I still quote things from the class!