Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Exam: NT Greek
This morning I sat the NT Greek exam. Once again, regardless of the marks
(for which, as I wrote already, I relatively care, ego apart), I
think that having to sit an exam is for me an effective way to study a
subject. (now, it would be quite ironic if after this statement it
turned out I did not pass!) My knowledge of NT Greek is obviously still
fairly limited; nevertheless, I believe that without the exam I would
have not achieved in a relatively short time even that limited
knowledge.
A quick post mortem, then: this subject is definitely worth studying! In the remote case you read this post, you are a U London external student, and you are considering whether to sit this exam or not, my suggestion is, go for it! Reading texts (these texts in particular) in the original tongues is one of the most rewarding experiences, and this is what encouraged and encourages my practice. I found the study notes I got from the University quite good, and you could study for the exam based on those notes only, without any additional textbook; this is not what I did, and that was probably not a wise move from the viewpoint of getting the highest possible marks, but I knew that from the start (I perhaps got a bit detoured by things that were not extremely relevant to the questions asked in the exam, but that's how I am). The study notes are very much tailored to the exam itself, focusing almost exclusively on the grammar found in the prescribed texts, and they skip explanations on several points, presenting many things as a given (Mounce is probably at the other end, pretending that almost everything can be explained in a simple and linear way), but they are full of valid and above all clear remarks. I certainly appreciate the effort that was put into them, and I think they are very useful. (my reservations about the whole point of studying subjects in such an anonymous way obviously remain.)
Sitting an exam also gives you (the student) some means to assess where you are and where you should improve. Myself, I still certainly need to consolidate much of the material (and this NT Greek subject covers a lot of material) and review several grammar points. I found this exam fairly difficult, and I basically ran out of time; for my current NT Greek fluency level, three hours to translate six NT pieces (taken from the prescribed texts, Mark 8-10 and John 18-21), answer three questions on each of them, then, without translating, read another two NT pieces, answering another 4 more advanced grammar questions for each of these two, and all this without a Greek lexicon, were somewhat not enough to do things in the way I would have liked to do. But I think that, given my personal study circumstances, I did what I could do. Now that the exam is over it is important to keep on practising.
Finally, the fact that the exam is over was immediately followed by the insight that it was about time for me to buy a few new books (like other people in the biblioblogdom, I am also a book addict). So right after the exam I entered into the Scheltema bookstore here in Amsterdam, and promptly bought "One Bible, Many Voices", by S.E. Gillingham, "Relativism" by M. Baghramian, and the Edición del IV Centenario del Don Quijote de la Mancha por la Real Academia Española y la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (in Spanish).
A quick post mortem, then: this subject is definitely worth studying! In the remote case you read this post, you are a U London external student, and you are considering whether to sit this exam or not, my suggestion is, go for it! Reading texts (these texts in particular) in the original tongues is one of the most rewarding experiences, and this is what encouraged and encourages my practice. I found the study notes I got from the University quite good, and you could study for the exam based on those notes only, without any additional textbook; this is not what I did, and that was probably not a wise move from the viewpoint of getting the highest possible marks, but I knew that from the start (I perhaps got a bit detoured by things that were not extremely relevant to the questions asked in the exam, but that's how I am). The study notes are very much tailored to the exam itself, focusing almost exclusively on the grammar found in the prescribed texts, and they skip explanations on several points, presenting many things as a given (Mounce is probably at the other end, pretending that almost everything can be explained in a simple and linear way), but they are full of valid and above all clear remarks. I certainly appreciate the effort that was put into them, and I think they are very useful. (my reservations about the whole point of studying subjects in such an anonymous way obviously remain.)
Sitting an exam also gives you (the student) some means to assess where you are and where you should improve. Myself, I still certainly need to consolidate much of the material (and this NT Greek subject covers a lot of material) and review several grammar points. I found this exam fairly difficult, and I basically ran out of time; for my current NT Greek fluency level, three hours to translate six NT pieces (taken from the prescribed texts, Mark 8-10 and John 18-21), answer three questions on each of them, then, without translating, read another two NT pieces, answering another 4 more advanced grammar questions for each of these two, and all this without a Greek lexicon, were somewhat not enough to do things in the way I would have liked to do. But I think that, given my personal study circumstances, I did what I could do. Now that the exam is over it is important to keep on practising.
Finally, the fact that the exam is over was immediately followed by the insight that it was about time for me to buy a few new books (like other people in the biblioblogdom, I am also a book addict). So right after the exam I entered into the Scheltema bookstore here in Amsterdam, and promptly bought "One Bible, Many Voices", by S.E. Gillingham, "Relativism" by M. Baghramian, and the Edición del IV Centenario del Don Quijote de la Mancha por la Real Academia Española y la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (in Spanish).
