Exams will be administered via the Moodle Quiz feature.  You will have one 75 minutes to complete the exam during the two-day testing window.  Exams will be proctored at the NCSU testing center, or another testing center approved by DELTA.  You are not permitted to have any additional material in the exam room with you. 

The exams will consist of 3-4 essay questions for a total of 100 points.  There will either be four 25-point questions or one 50-point question and two 25-point questions. Some questions will be required and others will allow choice between questions.  The questions will ask you to draw upon your knowledge of lecture material, readings, and current events. The primary source of questions will be from the class lectures. Every item that was a bullet-point during lecture is fair game. It is also important to study the readings, as the best answers will incorporate information from both the lectures and the assigned readings (and current events, where appropriate). 

Answers will be graded for both accuracy and thoroughness. Answers earning a 50/25 will clearly and correctly answer/explain the question in appropriate thoroughness . The best answers will fully incorporate information from readings as well as the lectures and will show sufficient knowledge of topic-relevant current events.

You are responsible for the readings (especially the reserve readings) as well as lecture material.

If there are major current events especially relevant to course material, questions may ask you to apply course material to explaining current events, e.g., major new proposals about immigration would figure into a question on immigration policy.

The test is closed book/notes nor will you be allowed to access any other website, except the Moodle site for the exam, during the test.

Each test covers only the material since the previous test.

You will have 75 minutes to complete the exam.

The most effective way to study. And this. And this. And why you should make a plan on how to study. More tips on studying and learning (and a great podcast).

Example (from 2012):
Briefly outline the stages of policy development. Which do you think is the most important? Provide an example of the importance of this stage from an issue in foreign policy.
Problem definition is the initial stage where an issue of public concern is perceived. For anything to be done about it, the issue must make it onto the agenda in the agenda setting stage. Next, in policy formulation, legislators, interest groups, bureaucrats, etc., determine policy from among alternatives. Adoption is when the policy becomes official via legislative or executive branch action. Implementation is actually putting the policy into action-- spending the money, enforcing the laws, etc. Finally, the policy evaluation stage evaluates the impact of the policy in terms of its ability to achieve desired goals at a reasonable cost, etc. I believe that the problem definition stage is the most important. None of these other steps even matter if a problem is not perceived. This country has plenty of problems that do not have policies because there is not a critical mass to perceive the relevance of the problem. Certainly, very few Americans believed the threat of domestic terror was a problem before 9/11. Furthermore, the way the problem gets politically defined in this stage has important consequences for the policy alternatives that attempt to deal with it. Foreign policy provides great examples of the importance of agenda setting. After 9/11, fighting in Afghanistan came to the top of the policy agenda from out of nowhere. In the Fall of 2002, the possibility of war in Iraq rose to the top of the policy agenda due to extensive efforts by the administration. We can also see how the importance of U.S. policy regarding various Middle Eastern countries seems to wax and wane based on the level of violence in particular areas-- e.g., the violence in Syria has made it a more notable matter on the policy agenda.