Anyone taking this DE course or has taken it with John Charles? If so, what are the quizzes/tests like? I know they are MC/TF...

I'm taking a couple courses to get my GI bill, been out of school for a while, tough getting back in the swing of things.

8/30/2010 9:02:05 PM

not positive about it, but i heard he was leaving NCSU. Although, I guess he could possibly still teach the DE section even if he left the area.

8/30/2010 9:41:18 PM

Yea, he is teaching a DE course this semester, but sent an email telling everyone he is not on campus this semester. I was just curious what his tests are like...i know his quizzes are MC/TF...anyone?

9/2/2010 6:11:28 PM

I just looked up his grade distribution... it's not very pretty :/

If the papers are the chunk of your final grade I'd focus on those and keep him in the loop as you are writing it to get a better grade on them.

9/3/2010 6:14:34 PM

I took it in Fall 09 through DE. There were 10 quizzes that were I think 10 questions each and you had 10 minutes to take them. Quizzes were worth 2% each. They were pretty easy, but you really had to pay attention to what you were reading as you had to rush through the quiz and he would pick out minor details that were easy to skip over just to make sure you read. There were 2 papers, a midterm and a final - each worth 20%. The class was pretty easy, but the guidelines for his papers were pretty strict - you didn't have very much freedom in what you wanted to write, you had 2-5 pages of guidelines that had to be met and it takes some serious critical thinking to come up with the ideas he was looking for.

9/4/2010 11:00:38 AM

I'm taking his DE class as well. I have an exam tommorow, and I am pretty terrified about it. I feel like I understand the material fairly well -- but I'm sure the slightest deviation from whatever he's looking for will result in a penalty.

[Edited on September 19, 2010 at 10:08 PM. Reason : Clarifying info]

9/19/2010 10:07:40 PM

Whatever you do - DO NOT SUMMARIZE on the exam. Don't repeat occurances in the literature, he does not want summarization, he wants analysis. There was always quotes where you had to figure out which stories they came from, and you have to get the title and spelling correct or each answer was wrong, so make sure you know the exact names of the stories and the authors. Pay a lot of attention to the examples he gives on the study guide for short answers because it's most likely going to be on the exam.

9/20/2010 11:26:43 AM

I had this guy for American Literature II. He gives a lot of work but I really enjoyed the class, and Charles is a great teacher. Make sure you keep up with the reading.

9/21/2010 1:37:14 PM