Biology 391 Spring 1999 Final Exam Information

Most of the final exam is comprehensive (over material in sections covered on the first three tests) but there will be some questions on material since exam 3. You should know the areas of human evolution from your last homework assignment, and what we discuss in the last lab section. In addition, there will be a long essay, which is described in the next paragraph.

On the final exam, there will be a long essay question over a section in your textbook which applies what we've learned about evolution to studying something relevant to human life. Evolutionary biology has been applied to a variety of different relevant areas, including understanding human behavior, medicine, and conservation. You will have your choice of three questions, one on each of these topics, which I will tell you now; your job is to pick the one that interests you most (or that you understand best) and prepare a clear, essay answer to it and learn it well enough so that you will be able to write it on the final exam (without your notes, of course.) So here are the questions: on the final exam, you will have your choice of answering Lab Manual Chapter XXIII Question 13 (on mate choice in humans), Lab Manual Chapter XXIV Question 3 (this is of medical relevance), or Lab Manual Chapter XXIV Question 5 (this is of relevance to conservation of biodiversity.) You are welcome to write out your answers and have me evaluate them ahead of time (you can e-mail them to me or you can try to catch me in the building.)

With regard to the comprehensive material, I will ask questions about the same areas that you've already been tested on in exams 1-3, but I will generally not ask exactly the same questions. When I write the final, I go through the earlier exams for the term, see what topics I've asked questions about, and ask different questions about the same topics. I will try not to pull out "picky details" from areas you haven't been tested on. Where you had a choice of questions, I could ask about any of the choices so you should understand answers to all choices (not just the one you answered -- there may not be a choice on this topic on the final exam.) So to study for the final exam, use your old exams, make sure you can answer and understand all the questions on them, and review the notes and other study questions on the same topics you were tested on.

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