The freshmen and sophomores completed their first humanities exam of the semester on Sept. 13 and 14. The first humanities test serves as a rite of passage for every newcomer to Milligan College. Afterwards, the freshmen breathed a sigh of relief, and the sophomores felt lucky to come out breathing.

To calm nerves and better prepare freshmen for success, Milligan offered multiple study group opportunities, including the Humanities Bowl and a study session with Traci Smith, the director of student success.

Freshman Stephanie Bain attended the Humanities Bowl and studied about an hour each night for a week before the test. According to Bain, the Bowl gave her an idea of what questions to expect on the test.

"(The test) was about what I expected. If you studied it's about what you can expect and as long as you study then you should do okay,” Bain said.

The freshman level exam covered Mesopotamian and Egyptian culture, and the sophomore level exam covered the period of the Enlightenment.

The sophomore exam consisted of two essays, matching authors and works, fill in the blank, identifications and art slides. The freshman exam was similar containing one essay, a paragraph question, art slides, definitions and identifications

On the day of the exam, most students in the sophomore level class had a bit of an upper hand on the freshmen, having already had the humanities test experience. Even with the predicted rise in the material’s difficulty, the test was still a challenge.

Junior Jessica Blevins knew what to expect from the test and anticipated the increase in difficulty.

"I knew it would be harder and that I would have to read all of the material,” Blevins said.

 

For Blevins, this meant no shortcuts, such as SparkNotes and other book summary websites. In order to prepare for the test, Blevins said she studied two hours daily starting four or five days before the test.

Sophomore Eric Pugh also made sure he was prepared for the test by studying for a total of seven hours two days before the test.

 

Pugh said he was glad he studied a lot, because he believes the sophomore test was harder than the freshman tests. According to Pugh, the test had more writing and open-ended questions.

Even though the sophomores may have “been there and done that,” the exam was still a shock and proved that studying too much is impossible.

"I studied a whole lot, but I didn't study enough,” Pugh said. “Next time I need to study further into detail the lecture notes."