M. Bolton's Final Examination Study Guide

M. Bolton’s Ninth Grade English
Final Examination 2008 Study Guide

I. Purpose

The purpose of this study guide is to help you organize your study for the final examination. The number of questions on each topic (Section II of this paper) should help you know how much time to spend studying each topic. The information on what to study for each topic (Section III of this paper) should help you know how to study for each topic.

II. Topics covered and other examination information

The examination will consist of 100 multiple choice/fill in the blank questions and one essay question.

A. Multiple choice/fill in the blank questions

Your answers to the multiple-choice/fill in the blank questions will account for 75% of your grade. All multiple-choice/fill in the blank answers will carry the same weight for grading purposes. The subject matter of the questions is broken down as follows:
Topic
Number of Questions on Topic
Literary terms
50
“To Kill A Mockingbird”
4
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
5
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”
5
“Romeo and Juliet”
8
Grammar
24
Poetic and Literary terms
9
Research and research papers
7

Note that the “Number of Questions” column in the above table refers to more than 100 questions. That is because many of the questions involve both literary terms as well as specific works of literature, and therefore get counted twice in the above table.

B. Essay question

The essay will account for 25 per cent of the grade. It will be closed book. It will be one paragraph in length – an eight-sentence mini-paragraph. It will ask you to apply one or more literary terms or concepts to one of the stories we have read.

1. Essay structure (proper mini-paragraph form – topic sentence, support sentences, proof sentences, and concluding sentence) – 50%
2. Essay content (knowledge of literary term or concept; application of literary term or content to text) – 50%

III. How to study for each topic

A. Literary terms.

Know the definitions of each term, and you will have a much more enjoyable exam! The literary terms and their definitions are on these documents in your notebook:

Poetry study guide
Poetry assignments, rubrics, and samples
Plot development frame
Foreshadowing worksheet
Writing rubric
Table of poetic and literary terms

You may wish to develop your own graphic organizer in order to learn these terms and to help others quiz you on them.

B. The stories and poetry.

Go back over the titles listed above – especially the stories – so that you will have a good idea of what happens in them.

C. Grammar

Know the information on the following areas:

Noun frame
Pronoun frame
Verb frame
Other five parts of speech frame
Sentence frame
Sentence structure

To go over examples of this information, go through and rework some of the exercises in Writer’s Inc. Skill book as needed:

Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Sorting parts of speech
Conjunctions
Interjections
Parts of speech review
Fragments and run-ons

D. Research and Research Papers

Know the information in the following:

How to make source cards and note cards
How to make basic citations for a works cited page
How to make parenthetical references in a research paper
Topic sentences
Mini-paragraph overview and exercise
How to answer a single-paragraph essay question
Plagiarism frame

E. Essay Question

Know the information in the following:

How to write a topic sentence for a one-paragraph answer to an essay question
Mini-paragraph diagram
The eight-sentence Mini-paragraph


You will also need a good understanding of the five stories we’ve read as well as the literary terms (see above section on literary terms).