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<p>Very roughly, by quarter:</p>
<ul>
<li>HUM: 2-3 papers, 1-2 presentations, in-class participation, sometimes weekly response “papers” depending on the professor.</li>
<li>SOSC: 2-3 papers, 1-2 presentations, in-class participation, sometimes a final exam depending on the sequence and professor. (I’ve noticed Classics of Social and Political Thought in particular tends to give final exams in addition to assigning papers. From what I’ve heard, so long as you’ve read all the material, you’ll be fine.)</li>
<li>Civ (extremely variable): 0-3+ papers, 1-2 presentations, in-class participation, sometimes a midterm, final exam. (Midterm and exam consisted of a set of IDs requiring regurgitation of facts, followed by a short essay that was more conceptual and broad. For example: “Write about the history of historiography and the issues one encounters in this field.”)</li>
<li>Math: 1-2 midterms, final exam, problem sets.</li>
<li>Core Bio: 1-2 papers on any topic whatsoever within a given subfield (e.g. evolution, etc.), lab, weekly quizzes.</li>
<li>Bio-topics (extremely variable): 1 final paper, 4-5 quizzes, attendance and participation in discussion sections. I also wrote two extra papers for this class, one a research proposal and the other a research paper discussing my findings.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m in an art sequence right now, and looking at the syllabus: class participation (attendance and participation in discussion sections), midterm, final exam, eight short responses, two papers. The midterm and final will probably include IDs (date, material, artist, title, etc.) and analyses of those pieces of art.</p>
<p>Exams/quizzes/midterms in the classes I’ve taken so far tend to be very fair and doable if you’ve been keeping up with the readings and if you listen in class. (By which I mean, you should at least be able to manage a B+, if not higher. And obviously, if you don’t keep up with the readings, and the professor just happens to ask about a topic you haven’t reviewed, you’re screwed.) Finals are two hours. Midterms usually are taken during class-time.</p>
<p>From my experiences, HUM teaches you how to make a solid argument, SOSC teaches you how to synthesize the various texts you’ve read in class, and Civ teaches you how to write a convincing research paper. Of these three, SOSC is by far the most difficult, IMHO.</p>
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<p>I actually can’t recall anything remotely resembling those questions in my Core Bio class. But then again, this is the dreaded Core Bio we’re talking about (i.e. the one designed for non-Bio majors). I don’t think the class I took even had discussion sections, merely lectures followed immediately by labs that had you counting beans; if it did have discussions sections, I’ve all but forgotten about them. But I’ve heard they recently revised the curriculum so that it’s more challenging, but I’m not entirely sure how much it’s changed. You’d have to ask someone who’s taken it this school year for more feedback on it. FWIW, I’m sure the Bio class for majors and the AP5 Bio sequence is much more enjoyable and challenging.</p>
<p>That said, my bio-topics class included some questions more similar to the ones you’ve listed - that is, in discussion sections, the questions tended to be more interesting and thought-provoking - and it was infinitely more enjoyable than Core Bio.</p>