Studying Tips for Final Exam

This page still under construction, so tread carefully, and come back later for a more complete version!

The final exam for this course will be from 1-3pm on Wednesday December 17th, in Memorial Hall 108.

The exam is cumulative, covering material from the entire course. Therefore, a good place to start, while I'm working on this page, would be at the studying tips pages for Test 1 and for Test 2. Another useful thing to do would be to try the extra homework, even if you're not planning to hand it in for credit -- it contains exercises which will be good practice for the final.

Here is a response to an email question from a couple of students in the class about the content of the final exam.

"I am finalizing the organization of the exam right now, so I can't give the
precise # of questions on each topic. I will post information to the course
web page later today. But I can say for sure that there will be questions from
most sections of the course:

	syntax, phonology, phonetics: a couple of questions each,
	**there will be a question about syntactic and semantic ambiguity**

	language acquisition: relevant to a couple of questions
	morphology, brain & language, sociolinguistics: probably one qn. each

Modulo fine tuning, there will be a warm-up set of multiple-choice
questions; a couple of questions on technical notation (phonetics,
syntactic trees); a few questions requiring problem solving, and a couple
of questions requiring slightly more open-ended written answers.

As on the last test, it will be possible to get full marks on the test
without getting everything right.

In preparing for the test, pay particular attention to class notes and
homeworks (including comments posted on the homeworks). The test is very
much based on the kinds of things covered in class and in homeworks (after
all, these are the topics that I consider most important)."

The email message above is superseded by the following notes, posted Monday 12/15.

Format

There are 110 points available on the exam, but you will get full marks on the test if you score 100 points, so there is an opportunity to drop some points. [This is the same format used on Test #2.] The test consists of 1 set of multiple-choice questions [8 points total]; 2 questions which practice the technical tools you have learned (e.g. transcription, tree drawing) [16 points total]; 7 questions which require problem solving in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, language acquisition of the kind that you have practiced in the course [62 points total]; finally, there are 3 questions requiring written answers explaining ideas in language acquisition, brain and language and sociolinguistics [24 points total].

Specific Suggestions

• There is one question, worth 16 points, on lexical and syntactic ambiguity. This is something that we have discussed at length in class and in the on-line notes; it has also been practiced in homework assignments and the extra homework assignment. Be sure to take a careful look at this.
• Look carefully at your homework assignments and the notes on the assignments provided on-line. How would you fare on these assignments if you had to do them again now?
• Take advantage of the on-line lecture notes for the course.
• If you haven't already, try out the questions on the extra homework assignment. They are useful! We can discuss your answers to these questions in the review session on Tuesday afternoon/evening.
• Finally, be sure that you don't study for this by just idly staring at your notes (or anything else) and trying to memorize lots of facts! This is not an effective use of your time! Honest! For suggestions on more active ways of studying for the course tests, see the tips page for Test #1.

Review Session

The review session for the final exam is at 4pm & 6pm on Tuesday December 16th, in Sharp Lab 103. We will have prepared a small amount of practice material, but for the most part these sessions will be driven by what you want us to cover. Bring questions, ideas, energy, and maybe a big mug of coffee: many people found the review session quite useful last time -- so do try to come along, and if you remember to bring along a positive attitude, it could be quite useful again.

Some New Topics

(since Test #2)

Sociolinguistics

• Dialectal variation
• Structure and history of Black English Vernacular (BEV)
• Status of dialects: linguistic and socio-economic factors

Language Acquisition

• Comparisons of human language and birdson (especially Song Sparrow)
• Ways in which child does not just copy language input from parents
• Overregularization in morphological development

Brain & Language

• Lateralization for language: effects of age and gender
• Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia: basic symptoms and results of more detailed experimentation
• Morphological difficulties encountered by patients with neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson's, Alzheimer's)