[Magdalen] US Higher Education

[Scott Knitter]

We certainly had plenty of testing at Michigan State, in the form of
actual examinations as well as papers to be written. And listening
exams in music literature class: the worst was in a course on Bach
taught by the dryly witty organ professor. We sat at desks in the
organ recital hall (the organ took up half the room), and he played
excerpts for us to identify. He wasn't above playing a single chord
for an excerpt, to much laughter, but of course something about the
chord, or the registration, or something hidden in his brain was
supposed to clue us in. Then there were his exams: one of them had a
single question: Tell me everything you know about Bach's years in
Leipzig...or something similarly preposterous. (I'm being ironic
here...couldn't stand the guy's teaching but did enjoy his humor.)

The traditional mnemonic device in music listening exams was
memorizing fake lyrics to the tune (easier in classical/romantic-era
music:
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Mozart
Herr Mozart's in the closet! Let him out! Let him out! Let him out!
...which kept the composer's name in mind but not the number of the
symphony, sadly.

Then there was the one we loved to sing but gave no clue to the piece,
from Tchaikovsky's Fourth (the saddish theme from the finale):

Mrs. Toscanini had a baby.
Mrs. Toscanini had a baby.
The father was Arturo, only maybe.
The father was Arturo, only maybe.

But most testing at MSU was of the conventional kind: blue-book essay
writing. And most listening exams were way harder than recognizing
those themes.

On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 11:20 AM, Roger Stokes
<roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com> wrote:
> I am nearing the end of a book (on Kindle) considering the US Higher
> Education system.  The author says so many credits are required for a
> degree, a concept I can understand.  However he then suggests that credits
> are obtained by attending so many hours of lectures and implies that there
> is no real test of what has been learned during the course.
>
> Is this really the case - turn up and you get the credits with minimal
> testing?
>
> Roger



-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA