My final semester at TESC (January-March 2014).
International Relations I
Dr. Ethan Joella
Grade: A- (90)
After the midterm:
This course is 10 modules in 12 weeks. That's about a module a week. Each module, you'll read 1 (occasionally 2) rather long chapters of "International Relations" and an short (~10 page) article from "International Politics." A discussion post is due every week. Besides that, there are a midterm and final, and a final paper due.
There are 2 required books. I got older versions of these books for around $5 each and they work well.
• "International Relations" by Goldstein & Pevehouse. Just be careful on this one that you get a fairly recent version, only a couple years behind the current year. I got the 2011-2012 version and it's working great for this class I'm taking in 2014. It's an engaging book. You'll read this whole book in the class.
• "International Politics" by Art & Jervis. You only read a few articles from this one.
"International Relations" has an online companion (at MyPoliSciKit.com). GET IT. Even if you don't want to shell out $100 for a new book with the access code, that's ok. Get an older book and buy the access code (you can get it for about $35). I was blessed to able to get a free code from a fellow classmate who thought she didn't have one, and bought an extra, which she generously gave me when she realized she already had one. I thought I would be ok on the tests by just rereading the books. Nope. Once I got the online companion and went through the quizzes, I found out how much deeper I needed to go and what to study. They are great practice for the midterm, at least. There's a lot on the online site but the quizzes are what I'm using most, and they are super helpful.
I've taken the midterm. It's made up of 50 multiple choice questions.
-The questions come primarily from the IR book.
-I don't remember any Qs directly from the IP book; the articles there mainly focused on a concept or 2 from the IR book readings and helped in understanding that more. So the concept may have been tested on, but not info in the IP book itself.
-There were a lot of definition/identification type questions, and some application/scenario type ones.
-PAY ATTENTION TO EXAMPLES given in the book—you will be tested on some specific instances/incidents/happenings on history and/or current events.
-There were some tricky questions. When I tested, I was confident I would get a passing score because I was sure of the right answer on most of the definitions and identifications, but I also wanted to score as high as possible and those trick Qs really threw me.
-I ended up with 82% on the midterm.
My professor is Ethan Joella, and he's really nice. He's been posting a welcoming, upbeat message at the start of every module. He appreciates good discussions and gives some thoughts or questions every module. If you email him, he'll promptly get back to you.
The main thing I have about this course is that it's so busy! You have lots of reading and postings every week, plus 2 tests, plus a final 10-page paper. But that's because it is UL. Glad I'm only taking it with a much less busy LL class.
After the final:
Finished this course today.
Best part: the Final Paper you can write on any topic of IR you want, and which counts for 30% of your grade. I wrote about "how the Olympics relate to IR," which was super fun! The 10 online Discussion Forum posts (which count for 20% of your grade) were pretty fun too. My class was small (4 other students besides me) so we got to discuss concepts in depth.
Worst part: the 2 exams (midterm & final) which each count for 25% of your grade. The tests are mostly made up of terms, definitions, and such, but some Qs are tricky. You don't have much slack because each question counts for 2 points; missing 3 questions can drop you a whole letter grade on the test. I felt the final was easier than the midterm, but I scored about the same on it (B).
There was a lot about the UN, international integration, and globalization on the Final. For the tests, know basic things like Gandhi's leading India to independence through nonviolence and China's "one child" policy. But also, don't just know the facts and definitions—know several causes & effects, what happened before/after, and other related info (countries, laws, concepts... anything else in the same group).
*And the last 2 or 3 weeks of this course will get very busy because you'll have a DF post due every week, plus studying for the final, plus writing the final paper.
---> And hey! I just found the $35 companion site for the textbook online: for FREE. Just searched "international relations practice test" and up it came! Here: International Relations, 10/e That. Is super cool. YOU WILL NEED THIS site for the practice quizzes, so take note! The only thing it's missing that the paid site has is flashcards, but there are other sites where you can find those. If at some point this site doesn't work, you might need to buy an access code for $35 and go to http://www.MyPoliSciKit.com for the practice quizzes and other material. This site could very easily mean the difference between a pass and fail on the tests, so it is not a bad deal.
Amanda_Vinh on Quizlet has created flashcards for definitions and important things from each chapter of the textbook here: amanda_vinh | Quizlet
A couple more flashcard sets that might be helpful (I didn't get to use these much):
International Relations Midterm Flashcards - Cram.com --528
International Relations Final Exam Flashcards - Cram.com --312
I did well on the posts (all 100s) and the final paper (97%) but the tricky tests dragged my grade down to an A-. Oh well, it was a fun course
Mass Communications I
Dr. Casey Maugh
Grade: A (93)
>The course is 6 modules. (Less modules = less work.) There are like 5 Discussion Forum posts and 4 Written Assignments (each consulting of 2 or 3 essay questions) for the whole course. Quite laid-back.
>The textbook is pretty interesting. It covers the basics about communications (this IS an intro course) but it has sidebars, articles, fun facts and more that makes the subject fun.
>There is a midterm. It consists of 20 or so multiple-choice and true-false questions, and I think 3 essay questions. One note: one of the first chapters in the textbook is an overview of the history of media. Some Qs on the midterm will cover industries covered in the overview but not yet covered in depth in your readings to date. (Like, I got asked a question on the radio industry even though we hadn't gotten to the chapter on that yet, but it'd been covered in the overview.)
--->This is the companion website. Very helpful, especially in prep for the midterm.
>My professor was Casey Maugh. She graded slowly but was nice and cheerful. She rarely got on the discussion boards. Put thought, examples, and personal experiences into your papers, and you'll do well.
>Also, use the textbook and at least 1 other source (more is better) in each of your papers. My professor appreciated when I did that—enough that she told me so.
>The Final Paper is 5-7 pages long, and you need 8 or more sources—this wasn't a problem for me. Your topic will be something about how some aspect of the digital age has affected an area of communication (books, radio, music industry, movies...). I wrote on how the Internet affects new movies. I got a B+ on my final paper. Pay attention to this in the directions for the final paper: "Part of your paper must include an assessment of how you gained information about your topic. For example, you need to assess the importance of your sources in terms of actual information that contributed to your learning about your topic. Also, assess how accessible each of your sources was—what did you have to do to actually get the material? You will probably want to discuss the Internet and its role as a new mass medium, especially if you used the Internet for your research."
>I got 100s on my written assignments, a B (86) on the midterm and with this final grade, am up to an A in the course (93).
>Pay attention to the syllabus (it's easy to overlook directions) but have fun—this is a relaxed, easy course.
International Relations I
Dr. Ethan Joella
Grade: A- (90)
After the midterm:
This course is 10 modules in 12 weeks. That's about a module a week. Each module, you'll read 1 (occasionally 2) rather long chapters of "International Relations" and an short (~10 page) article from "International Politics." A discussion post is due every week. Besides that, there are a midterm and final, and a final paper due.
There are 2 required books. I got older versions of these books for around $5 each and they work well.
• "International Relations" by Goldstein & Pevehouse. Just be careful on this one that you get a fairly recent version, only a couple years behind the current year. I got the 2011-2012 version and it's working great for this class I'm taking in 2014. It's an engaging book. You'll read this whole book in the class.
• "International Politics" by Art & Jervis. You only read a few articles from this one.
"International Relations" has an online companion (at MyPoliSciKit.com). GET IT. Even if you don't want to shell out $100 for a new book with the access code, that's ok. Get an older book and buy the access code (you can get it for about $35). I was blessed to able to get a free code from a fellow classmate who thought she didn't have one, and bought an extra, which she generously gave me when she realized she already had one. I thought I would be ok on the tests by just rereading the books. Nope. Once I got the online companion and went through the quizzes, I found out how much deeper I needed to go and what to study. They are great practice for the midterm, at least. There's a lot on the online site but the quizzes are what I'm using most, and they are super helpful.
I've taken the midterm. It's made up of 50 multiple choice questions.
-The questions come primarily from the IR book.
-I don't remember any Qs directly from the IP book; the articles there mainly focused on a concept or 2 from the IR book readings and helped in understanding that more. So the concept may have been tested on, but not info in the IP book itself.
-There were a lot of definition/identification type questions, and some application/scenario type ones.
-PAY ATTENTION TO EXAMPLES given in the book—you will be tested on some specific instances/incidents/happenings on history and/or current events.
-There were some tricky questions. When I tested, I was confident I would get a passing score because I was sure of the right answer on most of the definitions and identifications, but I also wanted to score as high as possible and those trick Qs really threw me.
-I ended up with 82% on the midterm.
My professor is Ethan Joella, and he's really nice. He's been posting a welcoming, upbeat message at the start of every module. He appreciates good discussions and gives some thoughts or questions every module. If you email him, he'll promptly get back to you.
The main thing I have about this course is that it's so busy! You have lots of reading and postings every week, plus 2 tests, plus a final 10-page paper. But that's because it is UL. Glad I'm only taking it with a much less busy LL class.
After the final:
Finished this course today.
Best part: the Final Paper you can write on any topic of IR you want, and which counts for 30% of your grade. I wrote about "how the Olympics relate to IR," which was super fun! The 10 online Discussion Forum posts (which count for 20% of your grade) were pretty fun too. My class was small (4 other students besides me) so we got to discuss concepts in depth.
Worst part: the 2 exams (midterm & final) which each count for 25% of your grade. The tests are mostly made up of terms, definitions, and such, but some Qs are tricky. You don't have much slack because each question counts for 2 points; missing 3 questions can drop you a whole letter grade on the test. I felt the final was easier than the midterm, but I scored about the same on it (B).
There was a lot about the UN, international integration, and globalization on the Final. For the tests, know basic things like Gandhi's leading India to independence through nonviolence and China's "one child" policy. But also, don't just know the facts and definitions—know several causes & effects, what happened before/after, and other related info (countries, laws, concepts... anything else in the same group).
*And the last 2 or 3 weeks of this course will get very busy because you'll have a DF post due every week, plus studying for the final, plus writing the final paper.
---> And hey! I just found the $35 companion site for the textbook online: for FREE. Just searched "international relations practice test" and up it came! Here: International Relations, 10/e That. Is super cool. YOU WILL NEED THIS site for the practice quizzes, so take note! The only thing it's missing that the paid site has is flashcards, but there are other sites where you can find those. If at some point this site doesn't work, you might need to buy an access code for $35 and go to http://www.MyPoliSciKit.com for the practice quizzes and other material. This site could very easily mean the difference between a pass and fail on the tests, so it is not a bad deal.
Amanda_Vinh on Quizlet has created flashcards for definitions and important things from each chapter of the textbook here: amanda_vinh | Quizlet
A couple more flashcard sets that might be helpful (I didn't get to use these much):
International Relations Midterm Flashcards - Cram.com --528
International Relations Final Exam Flashcards - Cram.com --312
I did well on the posts (all 100s) and the final paper (97%) but the tricky tests dragged my grade down to an A-. Oh well, it was a fun course
Mass Communications I
Dr. Casey Maugh
Grade: A (93)
>The course is 6 modules. (Less modules = less work.) There are like 5 Discussion Forum posts and 4 Written Assignments (each consulting of 2 or 3 essay questions) for the whole course. Quite laid-back.
>The textbook is pretty interesting. It covers the basics about communications (this IS an intro course) but it has sidebars, articles, fun facts and more that makes the subject fun.
>There is a midterm. It consists of 20 or so multiple-choice and true-false questions, and I think 3 essay questions. One note: one of the first chapters in the textbook is an overview of the history of media. Some Qs on the midterm will cover industries covered in the overview but not yet covered in depth in your readings to date. (Like, I got asked a question on the radio industry even though we hadn't gotten to the chapter on that yet, but it'd been covered in the overview.)
--->This is the companion website. Very helpful, especially in prep for the midterm.
>My professor was Casey Maugh. She graded slowly but was nice and cheerful. She rarely got on the discussion boards. Put thought, examples, and personal experiences into your papers, and you'll do well.
>Also, use the textbook and at least 1 other source (more is better) in each of your papers. My professor appreciated when I did that—enough that she told me so.
>The Final Paper is 5-7 pages long, and you need 8 or more sources—this wasn't a problem for me. Your topic will be something about how some aspect of the digital age has affected an area of communication (books, radio, music industry, movies...). I wrote on how the Internet affects new movies. I got a B+ on my final paper. Pay attention to this in the directions for the final paper: "Part of your paper must include an assessment of how you gained information about your topic. For example, you need to assess the importance of your sources in terms of actual information that contributed to your learning about your topic. Also, assess how accessible each of your sources was—what did you have to do to actually get the material? You will probably want to discuss the Internet and its role as a new mass medium, especially if you used the Internet for your research."
>I got 100s on my written assignments, a B (86) on the midterm and with this final grade, am up to an A in the course (93).
>Pay attention to the syllabus (it's easy to overlook directions) but have fun—this is a relaxed, easy course.
BA History 2014 - TESC
The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23
"I'm going on an adventure!' ~AUJ
"It is our fight." ~DoS
"I am not alone." ~BotFA
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that's given to us." ~FotR
"There is still hope." ~TTT
"Courage..." "This day, we fight!" ~RotK
CLEP: A&I Lit 74 ~ Am Lit 73 ~ Eng Lit 72 ~ Humanities 75 ~ College Math 77 ~ Western Civ I 63 ~ Western Civ II 69 ~ Natural Sci 64 ~ US History I 76 ~ US History II 69 ~ Sociology 68 ~ Am Gov 69 ~ Social Sci & Hist 71 ~ College Comp 61 ~ Marketing 70 ~ Management 66 ~ Psychology 67
DSST: Supervision 453 ~ Tech Writing 61 ~ Computing 427 ~ Middle East 65 ~ Soviet Union 65 ~ Vietnam War 74 ~[COLOR="#0099cc"] Civil War 68
[/COLOR]Other: College+ Biblical Social Justice B ~ ECE World Conflicts Since 1900 A
TESC courses: Capstone A ~ Leaders in History A ~ Photography 101 A- ~ Games People Play A ~ International Relations A- ~ Mass Communications I A
$5 off IC - 59690
My hair jewelry business
The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23
"I'm going on an adventure!' ~AUJ
"It is our fight." ~DoS
"I am not alone." ~BotFA
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that's given to us." ~FotR
"There is still hope." ~TTT
"Courage..." "This day, we fight!" ~RotK
CLEP: A&I Lit 74 ~ Am Lit 73 ~ Eng Lit 72 ~ Humanities 75 ~ College Math 77 ~ Western Civ I 63 ~ Western Civ II 69 ~ Natural Sci 64 ~ US History I 76 ~ US History II 69 ~ Sociology 68 ~ Am Gov 69 ~ Social Sci & Hist 71 ~ College Comp 61 ~ Marketing 70 ~ Management 66 ~ Psychology 67
DSST: Supervision 453 ~ Tech Writing 61 ~ Computing 427 ~ Middle East 65 ~ Soviet Union 65 ~ Vietnam War 74 ~[COLOR="#0099cc"] Civil War 68
[/COLOR]Other: College+ Biblical Social Justice B ~ ECE World Conflicts Since 1900 A
TESC courses: Capstone A ~ Leaders in History A ~ Photography 101 A- ~ Games People Play A ~ International Relations A- ~ Mass Communications I A
$5 off IC - 59690
My hair jewelry business
![[-]](https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/images/collapse.png)