ANT 210
Physical Anthropology

Test 1 Review Guidelines

Test 1 is worth a total of 100 points (20% of your course grade) and comprises three sections and a bonus (extra credit) opportunity to earn four additional points:

• Part I:  Multiple choice.  There are 26 multiple choice questions worth two points each.  They include questions about concepts, people and their contributions, and some questions that seek your understanding of how the various concepts learned so far connect and what their meaningfulness is.  There are five answer choices per question.  There are no answer choices that combine other answer choices, such as "a and b"; there are also no answer choices such as "none of the above" or "all of the above". 
  
  Tips: 

  • When reading a multiple choice question, try reading the question slowly and thoroughly, paying attention to any boldface or italicized words, and pause before looking at the answer choices.  Allow your intuition to guide you, and consider an answer choice correct if it is familiar to you and feels right rather than if it "sounds like it's right".  Sometimes we doubt ourselves and allow an answer that sounds good to be the one we think is right rather than choosing the answer that somehow quietly calls to us.  This is only true if you've done the readings and studied your class notes.  Otherwise, your mind and gut will be fighting with each other in which case guessing at the right answer will occur.
     

  • If multiple choice questions are something you take a lot of time on, you may want to skip to Parts II and III and complete this part last.
     

  • Try to answer all the questions you feel you know well first, then go back and take more time to think about the questions that require deeper thought.  This will alleviate the feeling of anxiety that stems from thinking time is flying by and you won't have time to finish.  Know that the test takes most people about 45-50 minutes to complete.
     

• Part II:  Matching.  There are 12 questions worth two points each in this section.  An explanation or definition of a concept or idea is provided and you select the letter of the best answer choice from a list of choices.  There are more answer choices than questions, and only one answer choice is correct for each question.  Answer choices are used only once; however, not all answer choices will be used. 
  
  Tips:

  • Some people find making flashcards helps with definitions and terminology.  Only do this is if you will be actively studying while making the flashcards; this may help when studying with a friend as well.  Otherwise, see the list below and try to quiz yourself on what the concepts, definitions, and ideas mean rather than simply reading your notes or the text straight through.
     

• Part III:  Short Answer/Fill In.  There are six short answer questions worth four points each.  Some questions have four parts, worth one point each; other questions may ask you to compare/contrast/define two concepts for two points each, etc.  Some questions are simply asking you to fill in the correct term or idea.

  Tips:

  • Be sure to answer exactly what the question is asking for full credit.  Be thorough and complete so no one has to guess what you mean.  Consider writing in sentences as opposed to phrases, where applicable, to ensure you are communicating what you know. Also be sure you are answering all parts of a question. 

Note:  Much of what to know is listed below; yet it may not be everything.  Use this review as a guideline.  Look up anything you don't have in your notes (especially if you missed a class and didn't get notes from someone) in your text and on the Internet because information from lecture is not always in the text.  Again, be sure to read your text even if you have all the class notes because not all information from the text is discussed in class.

What to Know:

Information from class lectures and the text (Chapters 1-3) will appear on the test.  In some cases concepts and ideas overlap, and in some cases they do not.  Information from lecture that is not in the text and information from the text that was not covered in depth in lecture may appear on the test.  It is a good idea to study your notes and the text together so you can more easily see where the overlap is.  Once again, if you missed a class, try to make a friend and get notes from him/her.  Otherwise, whatever you see below that you do not recognize may be looked up on the Internet.  Reading the text is still vital, even if you attended all lectures.

Terms, concepts, people, ideas:

Anthropology: 

• what is studied and researched, subfields, subdisciplines, examples of phenomena anthropologists study, what do physical anthropologists do, biocultural approach, holisitic perspective, culture (what is it?  how is it transmitted?), ethnocentricsm, anthropocentrism, cultural relativism.

Evolutionary theory: 

• the people who paved the way for an understanding of ideas related to speciation, natural selection, adaptation, fitness, explanations of fossils, the earth's geologic processes, extinction, selective pressure/agent, adaptive radiation, spontaneous generation, phylogeny/phylogenetic tree, etc:  Lyell, Hutton, Cuvier, Lamarck, Buffon, Ray, Linnaeus, Darwin, Wallace, Huxley, Malthus.

Genetics: 

• molecular genetics, who worked on the development of a model of the molecular structure of DNA, nucleotide, base pairing rule, replication, protein synthesis, what proteins do (examples of them), transcription, mRNA, translation, tRNA, ribosome, how RNA differs from DNA, what DNA triplets code for, codon, intron, exon, regulatory gene, homeobox, point mutation, genome.
   

• chromosomes (what are they? how many are in the somatic cells and gametes? result of mitosis and meiosis), crossing over and recombination, autosomal chromosomes, sex chromosomes, homologous pairs, diploid, haploid, gene, locus, allele, dominant, recessive, co-dominant, pleiotropy, polymorphism, polygenic, Mendelian genetics (Law of Segregation and Law of Independent Assortment), blending theory, genotype, phenotype, genotypic and phenotypic ratios (be able to determine this from a Punnett Square), homozygous dominant, heterozgyous, homozgyous recessive, linkage, heritability,
   

• population genetics, microevolution, macroevolution, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (formulas, purpose),
  gene flow, genetic drift, fitness, founder effect, stabilizing selection, balancing selection, directional selection.

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