COLLEGE ACADEMIC SKILLS IN ENGLISH

POSSIBLE MIDTERM ESSAY QUESTIONS (ACTUAL EXAM: 7 QUESTIONS)

Another School Year, Why? By John Ciardi

1.) What does college really teach us? Explain the difference between training and education.

Training is more on Professional whereas Education is more on Educational, basically. Also,

Training is more on honing your technical/mechanical skills while Education hones your Behavioral
skills. Also, Training also helps you to be a Scientist, whereas Education helps you to be a Humanist;
Furthermore, training offers you professional courses whereas education offers you liberal arts courses;
training helps you to be objective while education helps you to be subjective; training trains, education
teaches; training helps you do things, education helps you feel things. Training produces scientific mind,
education produces a human mind; training gives you standards, education gives you values; Training
provides the “What” and “Why of it whereas Education provides the “How” of it. Training produces a
civilized scientist but Education produces a civilized human. Training lets you use your heart, education
lets you use your hand. Lastly, Training humanizes scientist whereas Education simonizes the humanist.

Thinking as a Hobby by William Golding

2.) What is the difference between the 3 types of thinkers? Do you think there are only 3 thinkers in
this world?
Grade 3 thinkers are docile. They tend to follow orders and obey other people’s wishes. They can
never think for themselves and cannot distinguish truth from lies. Furthermore, Grade 3 thinkers think
with their feelings without analyzing. 90% of the people are said to be like this. On the other hand, Grade
2 thinkers are people who like to contradict any situation. They’re influenced by a dictator and can see
the corruption in the world. It is said to be that 9% of us are Grade 2 thinkers. Lastly, Grade 1 thinkers are
very rare in the society. They do not only see the corruption in this world but also know how to seek the
truth. Their lives are defined by beauty, wisdom, and knowledge. They are creative, imaginative geniuses
thinkers who analyze everything without taking feeling into their decision-making. It is said that only 1%
of us are Grade 1 thinker. Now, I do believe that this is not the only type of thinkers in our society because
what if you do not belong to any of the 3 thinkers? What if you can see the corruption, you can seek the
truth, but you do not have enough beauty, knowledge, and wisdom? There are a lot of people who I call
middle-thinkers – they’re people who are a mediocre in this society.

The Marks of an Educated Man by Alan Simpson

3.) List down the marks of an educated man
An educated man is liberal, knowledgeable, has standards, and skills. Furthermore, they can admit to
vast ignorance; they also ought to know a little about everything and a lot about something. Everything
they hear and everything they’re taught to, they believe in it with certain skepticism – this is a way of
having a clear thinking. They also have the ability to listen to a phony argument and see its dishonesty.
Also, they practice the art of self-expression on speech and on paper with some relish for style. They
develop a critical faculty; they pick and choose because they know that they cannot have everything we
want; they value the matter of sophistication – the quality of their prejudices; and they possess moral
values such as honesty, decency, courage, and public spirit. An educated man should also be versatile and
flexible, and lastly, an educated man is a well-rounded man.

Writing Process
4.) What is the writing process?
There are 3 parts of writing process – the Conceptualization, Preparation, and Execution. In
Conceptualization, the writer should start with a topic, its feasibility, his/her interest on the topic, the
topic’s researchability, significance, timeliness, and lastly, the audience. The preparation part includes (1)
Establishing a purpose where in the author asks his/herself what do he/she want the readers to learn
and what do he/she want the reader to understand about the topic. (2) The writer should create a list of
main ideas about the topic – this is the outlining part. (3) After listing the main ideas, the writer then
should thresh out his/her main ideas by giving quotes, examples, theories, facts, and statistics. (4) Then,
the author should organize the main ideas based on a principle that he/she can use, e.g. chronology, and
cause and effect. (5) Last step in preparation is that the writer must review and readjust the main ideas
by figuring out if there’s a connection between the points he/she provided. After the preparation part is
the execution or the writing itself.

Context Clues, Skimming, Scanning, Annotating

5.) What are the difference between context clues, skimming, scanning, & annotating?
Context clues are more on the hints that the author gives when defining a difficult or unusual word
within a text. And then, Skimming is a type of a reading technique where in you try to get the general
overview of a text. The technique includes finding typographical cues such as headings, boldface, italics,
indenting, bulleted and numbered lists. On the other hand, Scanning is also a type of reading technique
but it aims solely on finding facts within a text. This reading technique includes reading the first and last
sentences of a paragraph to get the main ideas.

Note taking and Outlining

6.) What are the types of note taking and outlining?
Notes-taking methods are outlining, cornell method, charting method, boxing type, and mapping method.
Outlining is a method that requires you to structure your notes in form of an outline by using bullet
points to represent different topics and their subtopics. Cornell Method is a technique of note taking
where in you divide your notes into three or four sections starting from one row at the top for title and
date (optional) and one at the bottom along with two columns in the center. Boxing method is a
technique where in all notes that are related to each other are grouped together in a box. Charting
method is an ideal method for notes that involve a lot of information in form of facts and statistics, that
need to be learned by heart. The information will be organized in several columns, similar to a table or
spreadsheet. Lastly, Mapping method helps organize your notes by dividing them into branches, enabling
you to establish relationships between the topics.

Mission and Vision of FEU

7.) What is the mission and vision of FEU?
FEU Vision – Guided by the core values fortitude, excellence, and uprightness, FEU aims to be a
university choice in Asia. FEU Mission – FEU provides quality higher education through industry-based
and outcome-based curricular programs. (2) FEU produces globally competitive graduates who exhibit
the core values fortitude, excellence, and uprightness. (3) FEU promotes sustainable and responsive
research, extension, heritage, and environment stewardship towards national and global development.

Finding the Main Idea

8.) How do we find the main idea?

There 6 ways or clues on how to find the main idea: (1) Read the first and last sentences of the
paragraphs as the topic sentences are usually on these part. (2) Pay attention to any idea that is repeated
in different ways as this might be the main idea. (3) Look for a sentence that states the main idea. (4)
Look at reversal transitions at the beginning of sentences. (5) There are times that the main idea is not
stated directly (implied main idea), hence, you must come up with a general statement that would
summarize the paragraphs as a whole. (6) Once you have found the main idea, test it.