Program / Course 26: Comprehensive Assessment / Lesson 2.4
What you will learn
- Score the historical examination by period, controversy and primary text.
- Identify errors of date, of attribution, of anachronism and of unfairness.
- Repair weaknesses with a short, dated study plan.
- Apply the suggested 70 percent target and the 1, 7, 30 and 90 day reviews as personal options.
The big idea
A historical examination is best marked in three groups, because a student can be strong on the sequence of events and weak on primary texts, or the reverse. The marking should also look for four kinds of error that matter in history: wrong dates, wrong attributions, anachronism and unfair descriptions of a party. The suggested 70 percent standard and the 1, 7, 30 and 90 day review schedule are options for the student’s own use. No certificate or credit follows.
Key terms
- Attribution error
- Assigning an idea or text to the wrong person or period.
- Anachronism
- Placing something in a period where it did not belong, such as describing a medieval debate in sixteenth century terms.
- Caricature
- A distorted description of a view that makes it easy to reject. The opposite is describing a view as its holders would.
- Error log
- A notebook list of each mistake, its type, the correction and the date of correction.
- Spaced review
- Returning to material at increasing intervals. The course suggests 1, 7, 30 and 90 days.
- Suggested standard
- A personal target such as 70 percent, set by the student and not by the site.
Background
In the same spirit as the other components, the historical examination is marked by the student. The site does not grade, store or certify it. The first task is to score each group of questions separately and to record the total. The second is to read each lost mark and decide why it was lost.
In history, four kinds of error deserve attention. A wrong date is easy to repair. A wrong attribution, such as giving Aquinas a view of Anselm, shows confusion that a comparison chart can fix. Anachronism is subtler: it reads later categories into an earlier time, for instance by calling the fourth century church Catholic or Orthodox in the modern sense. Unfairness is the failure to describe a party as its own members would.
A review plan should be modest and dated. Choose the three weakest areas, assign reading and a date to each, and set review points after the exam. One pattern is to return after 1 day, 7 days, 30 days and 90 days and re-answer five questions each time from memory. If the exam was below the standard you set, retake a different set of questions after at least one week.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Score by group
Write the score for the period questions, the controversy questions and the primary text questions. Add them for a total and compare with the standard you set before the exam. If one group is much lower than the others, that group becomes the center of the review.
Step 2: Sort the errors
For each lost mark, write the type of error: date, attribution, anachronism, gap or unfairness. Add the correct information and the source where you checked it. Do not skip the unfair statements, even if they cost few marks. They show a habit that can matter more than a date.
Step 3: Repair with comparison
Make a chart for the confusions. For example, set Anselm and Aquinas side by side, or Luther and Calvin, with dates, main works and main teachings. For anachronisms, rewrite the sentence in the language of the period. For unfairness, read a short statement of the view from the tradition’s own text, such as a creed or catechism, and rewrite your description.
Step 4: Fix the dates for review
Write the review dates in your notebook. At each one, answer five questions from the lowest group without notes. Record the result, and stop and adjust the plan if you do not improve.
- Which group of questions was weakest?
- Which type of error was most common?
- Did I commit any anachronism, and can I rewrite the sentence correctly?
- Did I describe any tradition in a way its members would not recognize?
- Which three areas will I study first, and by what date?
- What is my plan if I miss the standard I set?
Examples
An attribution error
A student wrote that Augustine wrote the Summa Theologiae. Aquinas wrote it in the thirteenth century. The fix is a two column chart of the two authors with their main works. (A constructed example.)
An anachronism
A student wrote that the early church was Protestant because it relied on the Bible alone. A better statement says that the early church valued Scripture highly and also appealed to tradition and the rule of faith, and that later churches differ on how to weigh these. (A constructed example.)
A repaired unfair statement
The first draft said that the Orthodox reject the pope because of pride. The revision says that the Orthodox hold that no one bishop has universal jurisdiction, and that they see primacy of honor in Rome as having belonged to an earlier undivided church. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching treats history as the place where the church’s doctrine has been handed on and clarified. A Catholic student marking an exam would check that the account of the papacy and councils is stated as Catholics themselves state it.
Orthodox
An Orthodox student would check that the account of the councils and of the East is given its own terms and not seen only as a variant of Western history.
Protestant
A Protestant student would check that the Reformation is described with reference to the reformers’ own aims, and that medieval Catholicism is not reduced to corruption alone.
Scholarly
Historians urge attention to context, to the sources’ purposes and to the limits of the evidence. They also warn of presentism, judging the past only by present standards.
Why it matters
History is a discipline of care. A student who learns to find anachronism and caricature in their own writing will read other people’s accounts with better judgment. A dated review plan then turns the lesson into practice.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: An exam answer is correct if the dates are right.
Correction: Dates matter, but a correct date can sit beside a false or unfair explanation. Marking should check the reasoning and the fairness.
Misunderstanding: Anachronism does not matter in doctrinal history.
Correction: It matters a great deal, because later terms and debates can distort the meaning of earlier texts.
Misunderstanding: The 1, 7, 30 and 90 day schedule is a requirement.
Correction: It is a suggestion. A student may choose other intervals, or none. The site does not track them.
Knowledge check
Why score the three groups of questions separately?
A single total can hide a weakness. A student may know the order of events but never have read a primary text, or may know texts but not the sequence. Group scores show where to spend review time and make the plan more specific.
What is an anachronism and why does it matter?
An anachronism places something in the wrong period, such as using later denominational labels for the early church. It matters because it can make earlier writers appear to say what they did not mean, and so distorts the history of doctrine.
How can an unfair description be repaired?
Read a short statement of the view from the tradition’s own source, such as a creed, catechism or confession, and rewrite the description so that a member of that tradition would accept it as accurate, even if the member would disagree with your own conclusions.
What happens if the score is below the suggested standard?
Nothing is declared by the site. The student may decide to review the weak material and retake a different set of questions after at least one week. The standard is only a suggestion for personal use.
Think it through
- Where in your own writing might you slip into anachronism?
- Whose view of history do you find hardest to state fairly?
- What kind of error would worry you most in a teacher, and why?
- How will you keep your review plan from fading after the first week?
Independent assignment
Score, log and compare
In your own notebook, write about 400 words. Record your scores by group, list at least ten errors with their types, make one comparison chart for a confusion and rewrite one unfair statement. Then write your dated review plan. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.
Further study
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity For checking the timeline.
- Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 volumes) For the development of doctrine.
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church To check descriptions of the Orthodox tradition against an Orthodox author.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church To check Catholic positions in the Church’s own words.
- Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith To check a Reformed Protestant position in its own words.
- Proverbs 18:17 On hearing the other side before judging.