Hello, time for the oddest giveback session ever. I took the Western Civ I test yesterday and passed with a 69. It took me a whole day to figure out how to explain what to study for. I used College Network’s study module first, I read through and as usual didn’t remember any of it. However, I do know that it helps, because it gave a clear understanding of how one thing led to the next. And I would say that, that is the most important thing to get about Western Civ. Then I also bought the Clep Western Civilization I by Robert Ziomkowski, isbn 0-7386-0131-4 as suggested by another instantcert patron. It is excellent and will help you to gain a more rounded perspective, especially if you read it then go over the IC cards at least twice. Also if get the chance go over the Peterson's sample test.
The test was 122 questions. About half were straight forward, while the other half used the process of elimination. It is important to understand timelines and how and why one thing led to another. The best thing I can do is give you examples of what I mean.
Mesopotamia is the cradle of Western Civilization, that doesn’t mean that all civilization began there. The reason that it is, has do with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in fact, that is what Mesopotamia means, the land between the rivers. In order for civilization to flourish, people need to be able to grow food in an over abundance. Otherwise you’re chasing your dinner around and you don’t have time to become a civilization. In order to farm you need fresh water… Around the same time that Mesopotamia was becoming a civilization, so was Egypt. Initially, Egypt was able to flourish faster in a way, because, not only did it have the Nile, but it had time and space to develop without one warrior race conquering it after another. Due to the terrain of desert surrounding probably 2/3 of it, ancient warrior races didn’t have the technology to reach it. Of course, that technology developed as Mesopotamia did.
Mesopotamia’s earliest cities were called Sumer, named for its people. They developed city-states, oligarchies and then monarchies to manage their number one resource of water. Besides Summer there was Akkadians who where nomadic and eventually concurred Sumer. The Akkadian, Sargon became chief minister of the Sumerian king and eventually took over becoming king himself. There were the people of Ur who were called the third dynasty, Ur is where Abraham of the bible came from. Then the Babylonians, who overthrew the Sumerian-Akkad kings. Babylonians were Amorites. The most famous was Hammurabi. His Hammurabi code was an amazing collection of legal edicts and rulings made about trade, criminal matters etc. The Hammurabi Code is called lex talionis, law of retribution, you know an eye for an eye. Then there were the Hittites, a warrior race and later the Assyrians, another warrior race, whose art depicted their warrior conquests. They overthrew the Babylonians and later the Neo-Babylonians overthrew Assyrians at Nineveh in around 600 bce.
One of the most famous Neo-Babylonians was Nebuchadnezzar, he built Babylon and the famous hanging gardens for his wife on what they think was a ziggurat (a Babylonian temple usually found at the center of one of their cities). He also was famous for deporting Hebrews from Judah after conquering it. This was the Babylonia captivity spoken of in the Bible.
On the clep, you might get a question like: Sargon of Akkad is best known for
a) Establishing an alphabet (this was the Phonecians)
b) Freeing Hebrews from exile (this was Cyrus the Persian king in 539)
c) Unifying Mesopopotamia around 2371 -2316 bce
d) Building the Hanging Gardens (Nebuchadnezzar built for his wife)
So by elimination (c ) is the answer. Many of the questions are set up like this, which is why it is important to read Western Civ like a story. I hate to admit it, but some of my understanding is from watching movies and the historical channel too. For instance, there are questions concerning the Persian wars on this exam. I remember Darius I from watching the history channel. Then in the movie 300, wow all of those beautiful Spartans, oops sorry, it discussed the hot gates Thermopylae and the uneasy alliance of Athens and Sparta. It showed how boys were raised if they were of the Spartan class of elites. In reading I found out about the Delian League (navel based) which the Athenians formed with other Greeks just in case Persian came back. It was naval based. However Sparta had already formed the Peloponnesian league which was land base. Spartans feared that Athens would monopolies, so this began the Peloponnesian war (431 -404 BCE). It wasn’t until Phillip of Macedonia, Alexander the Great’s father, that Greece was united under one ruler. He was able to conquer because of his innovation of the phalanx. There were questions concerning this period of Greece’s history, especially art, literature and philosophy. Understand Socrates, Plato and Aristole. Know who that Aeschylas, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote tragedies while Aristophanes wrote comedies. Don’t forget the Illiad, the story of Troy, with Brad Pitt, okay sorry, and the Odyssey, the story of Ulysses voyage home from Troy written by Homer. Also understand the geography of Greece and why it function in polis (city-states).
Okay, on the clep test that I took, they showed pictures of different art and asked questions pertaining to the picture. So if they showed a picture of ancient cavalry pillaging and plundering with an occasional lion, it would probably be Assyrian. A ziggurat was a neo-Babylonian temple with a series of steps or large terraces for the gods to descend from heaven. Remember that the hanging gardens was one of the wonders of the world. While we are on the subject of western civ art, you will need to know that Greeks generally used columns surrounding their temples.
I couldn’t find a simple way to explain that for each period from 4000 BCE to 1648 CE you need to understand how each country developed and incorporated those they conquered. You’ll have to understand the reason for certain countries developing in the manor that they did, their art, literature, religion, architecture, wars, treaties, famines, and disease. You'll have understand Rome, Byzatine and even how the Norther tribes were delt with by Charlemange and all of what he accomplished. It was his three grandsons that fought with one another causing the Frankish government to become France and Germany as a direct result. Then it's important to see how Willam of Normandy became Willam the Conqueror. You'll have to see how the popes were involved and that it was William is famous also for the Doomsday book, a survey of the counties of England which gave him the ability to effectively tax.
You’ll have to understand that weak kings like John of England (you know the prince John of Robinhood) was forced into signing the Magna Carta giving his nobles more power than he had. He was the son of Henry II who was king of England through his mother, most of France through his father, and Aquitaine because of his marriage to Elanor. Henry also conquered Scotland and Ireland. However, Henry treated her unkindly and she used Richard and John against him. This helped to weaken England.
Henry’s II sons were King Richard the lion heart, who fought in the crusades and Prince John who became an ineffective king. It wasn’t until Edward I, John’s grandson, that England became a force again. You’ll have to see how Phillip II of France grew up around the same time as Richard and John. Phillip was able to manipulate Richard, then John and use John’s weaknesses against him peppering in some war to gain back much of France from England’s control. But it was Edward III grandson of Edward I who reclaimed the French throne after the death of Phillip IV, who was his grandfather on his mother’s side she was the Isabella in the movie Braveheart, who married Edward I’s weak son. Edward III did lay claim to the French throne, but French law forbade claims through the female in a line. So his claim touched off the 100 years war.
So, you’ll just have to understand all of what I’ve stated and see how one King affected another, the part geography played, just as one religion developed and affected and grew others. You’ll have to get how each pope caused ripples, and the differing reformation, such as Martin Luther, John Calvin etc came out of their distaste for the excesses of the Catholic Church.
I wish I could help more. There just is no magic pixy dust for this one.
The test was 122 questions. About half were straight forward, while the other half used the process of elimination. It is important to understand timelines and how and why one thing led to another. The best thing I can do is give you examples of what I mean.
Mesopotamia is the cradle of Western Civilization, that doesn’t mean that all civilization began there. The reason that it is, has do with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in fact, that is what Mesopotamia means, the land between the rivers. In order for civilization to flourish, people need to be able to grow food in an over abundance. Otherwise you’re chasing your dinner around and you don’t have time to become a civilization. In order to farm you need fresh water… Around the same time that Mesopotamia was becoming a civilization, so was Egypt. Initially, Egypt was able to flourish faster in a way, because, not only did it have the Nile, but it had time and space to develop without one warrior race conquering it after another. Due to the terrain of desert surrounding probably 2/3 of it, ancient warrior races didn’t have the technology to reach it. Of course, that technology developed as Mesopotamia did.
Mesopotamia’s earliest cities were called Sumer, named for its people. They developed city-states, oligarchies and then monarchies to manage their number one resource of water. Besides Summer there was Akkadians who where nomadic and eventually concurred Sumer. The Akkadian, Sargon became chief minister of the Sumerian king and eventually took over becoming king himself. There were the people of Ur who were called the third dynasty, Ur is where Abraham of the bible came from. Then the Babylonians, who overthrew the Sumerian-Akkad kings. Babylonians were Amorites. The most famous was Hammurabi. His Hammurabi code was an amazing collection of legal edicts and rulings made about trade, criminal matters etc. The Hammurabi Code is called lex talionis, law of retribution, you know an eye for an eye. Then there were the Hittites, a warrior race and later the Assyrians, another warrior race, whose art depicted their warrior conquests. They overthrew the Babylonians and later the Neo-Babylonians overthrew Assyrians at Nineveh in around 600 bce.
One of the most famous Neo-Babylonians was Nebuchadnezzar, he built Babylon and the famous hanging gardens for his wife on what they think was a ziggurat (a Babylonian temple usually found at the center of one of their cities). He also was famous for deporting Hebrews from Judah after conquering it. This was the Babylonia captivity spoken of in the Bible.
On the clep, you might get a question like: Sargon of Akkad is best known for
a) Establishing an alphabet (this was the Phonecians)
b) Freeing Hebrews from exile (this was Cyrus the Persian king in 539)
c) Unifying Mesopopotamia around 2371 -2316 bce
d) Building the Hanging Gardens (Nebuchadnezzar built for his wife)
So by elimination (c ) is the answer. Many of the questions are set up like this, which is why it is important to read Western Civ like a story. I hate to admit it, but some of my understanding is from watching movies and the historical channel too. For instance, there are questions concerning the Persian wars on this exam. I remember Darius I from watching the history channel. Then in the movie 300, wow all of those beautiful Spartans, oops sorry, it discussed the hot gates Thermopylae and the uneasy alliance of Athens and Sparta. It showed how boys were raised if they were of the Spartan class of elites. In reading I found out about the Delian League (navel based) which the Athenians formed with other Greeks just in case Persian came back. It was naval based. However Sparta had already formed the Peloponnesian league which was land base. Spartans feared that Athens would monopolies, so this began the Peloponnesian war (431 -404 BCE). It wasn’t until Phillip of Macedonia, Alexander the Great’s father, that Greece was united under one ruler. He was able to conquer because of his innovation of the phalanx. There were questions concerning this period of Greece’s history, especially art, literature and philosophy. Understand Socrates, Plato and Aristole. Know who that Aeschylas, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote tragedies while Aristophanes wrote comedies. Don’t forget the Illiad, the story of Troy, with Brad Pitt, okay sorry, and the Odyssey, the story of Ulysses voyage home from Troy written by Homer. Also understand the geography of Greece and why it function in polis (city-states).
Okay, on the clep test that I took, they showed pictures of different art and asked questions pertaining to the picture. So if they showed a picture of ancient cavalry pillaging and plundering with an occasional lion, it would probably be Assyrian. A ziggurat was a neo-Babylonian temple with a series of steps or large terraces for the gods to descend from heaven. Remember that the hanging gardens was one of the wonders of the world. While we are on the subject of western civ art, you will need to know that Greeks generally used columns surrounding their temples.
I couldn’t find a simple way to explain that for each period from 4000 BCE to 1648 CE you need to understand how each country developed and incorporated those they conquered. You’ll have to understand the reason for certain countries developing in the manor that they did, their art, literature, religion, architecture, wars, treaties, famines, and disease. You'll have understand Rome, Byzatine and even how the Norther tribes were delt with by Charlemange and all of what he accomplished. It was his three grandsons that fought with one another causing the Frankish government to become France and Germany as a direct result. Then it's important to see how Willam of Normandy became Willam the Conqueror. You'll have to see how the popes were involved and that it was William is famous also for the Doomsday book, a survey of the counties of England which gave him the ability to effectively tax.
You’ll have to understand that weak kings like John of England (you know the prince John of Robinhood) was forced into signing the Magna Carta giving his nobles more power than he had. He was the son of Henry II who was king of England through his mother, most of France through his father, and Aquitaine because of his marriage to Elanor. Henry also conquered Scotland and Ireland. However, Henry treated her unkindly and she used Richard and John against him. This helped to weaken England.
Henry’s II sons were King Richard the lion heart, who fought in the crusades and Prince John who became an ineffective king. It wasn’t until Edward I, John’s grandson, that England became a force again. You’ll have to see how Phillip II of France grew up around the same time as Richard and John. Phillip was able to manipulate Richard, then John and use John’s weaknesses against him peppering in some war to gain back much of France from England’s control. But it was Edward III grandson of Edward I who reclaimed the French throne after the death of Phillip IV, who was his grandfather on his mother’s side she was the Isabella in the movie Braveheart, who married Edward I’s weak son. Edward III did lay claim to the French throne, but French law forbade claims through the female in a line. So his claim touched off the 100 years war.
So, you’ll just have to understand all of what I’ve stated and see how one King affected another, the part geography played, just as one religion developed and affected and grew others. You’ll have to get how each pope caused ripples, and the differing reformation, such as Martin Luther, John Calvin etc came out of their distaste for the excesses of the Catholic Church.
I wish I could help more. There just is no magic pixy dust for this one.
Luv
Information sys & comp appl - 56
Intro to World Religions - 72
Technical Writing - 52
Principles of Management 70
Principles of Supervision 60
Here's to Your Health 66
Intro to Educational psychology 63
Abnormal psychology avg 77
Western Civ I 69
Information sys & comp appl - 56
Intro to World Religions - 72
Technical Writing - 52
Principles of Management 70
Principles of Supervision 60
Here's to Your Health 66
Intro to Educational psychology 63
Abnormal psychology avg 77
Western Civ I 69
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