A fair amount of "freaking out" usually accompanies the distribution of the midterm
passages. Nonetheless, I think that this is an effective exam format. By giving
students most of the passages in advance I emphasize that good history is about
thinking not memorizing. For many students, this is the only college-level history
course they will take and it is important that they learn to work with primary
sources. How else will they understand what historians do? Finally, the integration
of secondary and primary sources is intended to get them thinking about constructing
an argument. Although many students ignore this last piece of the exam, including
it creates further opportunity to discuss the relationship between evidence and
interpretation and prepares them for the paper later in the semester.