USA+Study+Guide

=__Here is the study guide provide by USA! Dr. Romey sent it in an email to me so it is probably the current one!__= The purpose of the comprehensive exams is for students to put on display what they know--- ideally, your knowledge base should be sufficiently “comprehensive” (hence the name) that you can tackle any question within the field of gifted education based on your understanding of the field, rather than preparing to answer only a specific set of questions (not to mention that, as teachers, we don’t want our students just “learning to the test”!). __With that in mind, the best approach to studying for comps is as follows:__ * Get our your course syllabi from your gifted education courses here. Look them over to determine if there are any “gaps” in your knowledge--- what are the topics you feel comfortable with? What are the topics you need to refresh your memory about?   * While you are doing this, think about the three thinkers or theories in the field that have seemed the most applicable or relevant to you--- whose work means the most to you? Who do you think is “doing it right” in terms of defining, identifying, and serving gifted students? Think about how your favorite theorists and theories “fit together”, and think about what they say about the four areas of our classes here at South--- characteristics of gifted children, creativity, curriculum, and special populations. Build your bibliography around those areas--- have articles from your chosen major thinkers in the field that cover those topics, articles on how your preferred theories and theorists address those issues.   * Something else to do is to think in terms of your own experience as a teacher of the gifted; as you're studying, think about how what you're studying relates to you experiences in the classroom and make connections between the two--- you never want to get too far away from the research in your actual comps answer, but if it happens that there's a question that matches your experience, you can definitely say something like, "When I dealt with this situation in my own classroom, the theory that I found most useful to apply was..." or "the research that was most helpful to me in resolving a similar situation was..." You always want to make reference to the research, but if you can show a combination of research and practice, that is also a strength.  Some further caveats: //read every question carefully//. Be careful that questions are saying what you think they’re saying. We may ask you hypothetical questions: “What if---?” “What would you do if---?” We may also ask practical or applied questions--- how theories can be used in the real world. We may ask about specific populations of students, or specific situations. Be careful that you are answering what the question asks, and everything that the question asks. Not all questions are intended to have one and only one right answer--- sometimes we just want to give you a chance to “show off” and tell us everything you know, rather than looking for something specific.