Orientation Video 03 - Orientation test

After you’ve reviewed the information we’ve discussed in the last two videos, you’re going to want to turn your attention to the Orientation Test. Most of the orientation test is a multiple choice/true-false test on all the materials you see here in the Orientation section of our Blackboard site.  It also includes a music identification question on two possible pieces in chapter six.   I have two purposes in giving you this test so early. First, I want to push you a bit to read all the material here in Orientation. I’m always surprised at how often a student will indicate in one of the later chat sessions that they weren’t aware of one or more of the resources I’ve provided. I want to make sure that you know where to find the tools that will help you be successful so this test will serve as motivation to familiarize yourself with all this information early on. Second, there is a particular kind of question that you’re going to encounter on the listening exams. It’s an identification question where you hear an excerpt of a piece we’ve studied and you have to choose the title, composer, and genre of that piece out of a list. As I mentioned before, one such question is on this orientation test. My hope is that once you’ve experienced this kind of question even once you’ll have a better sense of how to study for the listening exams. Now if you are perusing the Orientation section prior to the beginning of the semester, you won’t see the Test or it’s instructions as they’re pictured right here. All the assessments become available on the first day of the semester or session. So don’t worry if you don’t see these links before the session starts. They will appear once we are officially in the session or semester. Notice that there are instructions for this short test right here in the Orientation section. No attached documents, nothing you have to open up – they are right here. Read the instructions carefully before you take the test so you know what is going to be covered. In particular, pay attention to the information shown here on the two listening identification questions. You’ll want to listen to those pieces carefully and review the title, composer, and genre information I’ve listed here. Once you have reviewed all of the information here in Orientation and you’ve read chapter 6, the section of chapter 6 listed here in the instructions, and you’ve listened to these two pieces, you can then take the Orientation Test by clicking this link. Now unfortunately I can’t demonstrate that for you because I’ve set that to not be available until the start of the semester it won’t open up for me right now. But when you see this link here for Orientation Test just click this, a screen will open up asking if you’re ready to begin the test, you’ll click “yes,” and you’ll start. As you can see you’ll only have 20 minutes to answer the questions and you can only take this once, so be ready before you start. You also want to pay attention to the calendar and make sure that you understand the deadline for this because in some sessions, such as the summer or the intersession, this test is due very soon. Even in the regular semester it’s generally due within the first week so take a close look at the calendar and make sure that you get this done on time.