Program / Course 26: Comprehensive Assessment / Lesson 1.1
What you will learn
- Describe what this course is: a private self-assessment with no submission, grading, certificate, accreditation or degree.
- Build a review plan that covers the whole Bible in a fixed number of weeks.
- Make a one-page outline of the Bible’s divisions, story and key passages from memory.
- Choose honest exam conditions and a suggested standard for your own use.
The big idea
This course tests nothing on the website. Every examination is one you give yourself, in your own notebook, and the result is seen by no one else. There is no certificate, no accreditation, no degree and no credit. Because of that, the only value of the exercise is honesty. A good review plan for the Bible breaks the whole book into small, repeatable pieces, starts with a blank-page outline written from memory, and ends with a short list of what to study next.
Key terms
- Self-assessment
- A test you set, take and mark yourself. Nothing is sent to the website or to any teacher, and nobody else grades it.
- Canon
- The list of books a church accepts as Scripture. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant lists differ in the Old Testament.
- Blank-page recall
- Writing down everything you remember about a topic on an empty page, with no notes, before checking the sources.
- Retrieval practice
- Studying by pulling answers out of memory instead of rereading. Research on learning generally finds that it helps retention.
- Suggested standard
- A target you may set for yourself, such as 70 percent. It is a suggestion for your own use, not a pass mark set by the site.
- Spaced review
- Returning to material after longer and longer gaps. This course suggests returning after 1, 7, 30 and 90 days.
Background
The program you are finishing is instruction only. There are no accounts, nothing is submitted and nothing is graded by the site. This final course keeps that rule. It gives you a method for finding out what you know, and then leaves the marking, the scoring and every decision about what to do next in your hands. It does not grant a degree, credit, certificate, ordination or any qualification, and it does not claim accreditation of any kind.
Because no one else will see the result, the usual reasons for cramming or bluffing disappear. The only person who can be fooled is you. For that reason the course asks for honest conditions: a timer, no notes, no searching until you have finished, and answers written in your own words. Standards such as 70 percent are offered as suggestions you can adopt, change or ignore.
The Bible is large, so a review plan has to be small in each piece. Many students spread the work over several weeks: one week for the Old Testament narrative books, one for the poetry and wisdom books, one for the prophets, one for the Gospels and Acts, and one for the letters and Revelation. Each week has three parts: read an overview, write a blank-page outline, and check the outline against the text.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Set the frame and the dates
Write at the top of a notebook page what this assessment is and is not. It is a private check of your own knowledge. It is not graded by the site, and it leads to no credential. Then write a start date and an end date for the biblical component, with the examination itself on a day you choose.
Pick a suggested standard for yourself. The course suggests 70 percent on each knowledge examination, but you are free to choose a different number. Write it down before you start, so that you cannot adjust it after seeing the result.
Step 2: Write a blank-page outline
On one page, with no notes, list the books of the Bible in order and group them: Law, history, wisdom and poetry, prophets, Gospels and Acts, letters, Revelation. Under each group write one sentence on its main theme. Mark the places where you hesitate. Those marks are your first review list.
Step 3: Review in weekly blocks
Divide the Bible into blocks you can finish in a week. For each block, read a short overview, then close the book and write what happened, who the main figures were and what the main teaching is. Then open the text and correct yourself in a different color of ink.
Include the questions that readers disagree about, such as the number of books in the Old Testament canon, the dating of some books and the way different churches read certain passages. A good review knows where the disagreements are.
Step 4: Memorize a short list of key passages
Choose perhaps twenty passages you want to be able to locate and summarize: for example Genesis 1, Exodus 20, Psalm 23, Isaiah 53, Luke 24, John 1, Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15. Test yourself by writing the reference for a summary, and a summary for a reference.
Step 5: Decide the exam conditions
Decide the length of time, the number of questions and the place. The course plan suggests 25 to 30 questions on the books, story, genres, major passages and interpretive questions. Close the notes, set the timer and do not look anything up until you have finished.
- Which part of the Bible do I find hardest to summarize, and why?
- Can I name the books of the Bible in order without a list?
- Which passages could I locate quickly, and which only vaguely?
- Where do Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant canons differ, and can I say so accurately?
- What exam conditions would make the result honest for me?
- What suggested standard will I set, and what will I do if I fall below it?
Examples
A five week plan
A student sets one week each for the Pentateuch and history, the poetry and wisdom books, the prophets, the Gospels and Acts, and the letters and Revelation. At the end of each week a blank-page outline is written and corrected. In week six the exam is taken. (A constructed example.)
A weak plan
A student rereads favorite chapters and feels well prepared. Because no outline is written from memory, gaps in the prophets and the Old Testament histories stay hidden until the exam day. (A constructed example.)
Honest conditions
A student sets a timer for ninety minutes, puts the phone in another room and writes answers by hand. Afterward the student marks them with a pen of a different color and records the score without rounding up. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catholic Church receives a canon of seventy three books, forty six in the Old Testament and twenty seven in the New. A Catholic student reviewing the Bible includes books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and the two books of Maccabees.
Orthodox
The Orthodox churches receive the books the Catholic canon includes and, in many churches, a few more. There is some variation among Orthodox churches on the exact list. Orthodox students usually learn Scripture in close connection with worship and the Fathers.
Protestant
Protestant churches receive thirty nine books in the Old Testament and twenty seven in the New. Many Protestants regard the additional books as useful for reading but not as Scripture on the same level. Their students are often taught to review by reading the text directly.
Scholarly
Biblical scholars, whatever their personal belief, describe the Bible as a collection of texts from different periods and genres. They debate the dating, authorship and composition of many books, and a careful student separates such debates from the plain content of the text.
Why it matters
A student who has read widely can still be surprised by an empty page. The act of testing, without notes, shows which knowledge is solid and which only feels familiar. A plan made before the exam, with dates, keeps the review from drifting, and a standard written in advance keeps the result from being bent to flatter the student.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: This course is an accredited final examination.
Correction: It is not. Nothing is submitted, graded by the site, certified or credited. It is a method for your own use.
Misunderstanding: Rereading the Bible is the best way to prepare.
Correction: Rereading helps, but retrieval practice usually works better. Write what you remember first, and then check.
Misunderstanding: A suggested standard of 70 percent is a pass mark.
Correction: It is a suggestion. You may choose another number. No one pronounces a pass or a fail.
Knowledge check
Who marks the examinations in this course, and what happens to the results?
The student marks them. Nothing is submitted to the website and no one else sees them. There is no certificate, no accreditation, no credit and no degree. The results stay in your notebook and serve only to guide what you study next.
Why begin the review with a blank-page outline?
A blank page shows what you can recall without help. Rereading creates a feeling of familiarity that can hide gaps. Writing from memory finds the gaps early, so that review time goes where it is needed. The outline also gives you a starting point to compare with later attempts.
Name one difference between Catholic and Protestant Old Testament canons.
The Catholic canon includes books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1 and 2 Maccabees, which Protestant churches do not receive as Scripture. The Catholic Old Testament therefore has forty six books and the Protestant has thirty nine.
What does it mean to set a standard before the exam?
It means choosing your target, such as 70 percent, before you see any result. This prevents moving the line afterward to suit the outcome. The number is a suggestion for your own use, not a rule from the site.
Think it through
- What do you hope to learn about yourself from this assessment, apart from a score?
- Which temptation is stronger for you: to make the exam easy, or to be harsh with yourself?
- Which book of the Bible do you most avoid, and what does that suggest?
- How will you protect an uninterrupted hour for the exam?
Independent assignment
A review plan and a blank-page outline
In your own notebook, write 300 to 400 words. First, state in two sentences what this course is and is not. Second, write your review schedule with dates, the exam date and the standard you chose. Third, on a separate page, write from memory the outline of the Bible by groups of books, with one sentence on each group, and circle the parts you were unsure of. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.
Further study
- Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth Use the chapters on the genres of the Bible to organize your review blocks.
- Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament Review how the canon took shape, in preparation for questions on the books of the Bible.
- Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction A single survey to use for revision across the whole program.
- 2 Timothy 3:16 A text on the nature and use of Scripture.
- Luke 24:27 Jesus reads the Scriptures as one story, a model for your outline.