Intro To World Religions (DANTES)

Hi All,

I took Intro to World Religions today. It was definitely one of the more challenging and thorough exams I have taken so far.

I am confident that I passed. But the actual grade I receive could be anything. On at least a dozen questions I wasn't ABSOLUTELY sure of the answer. The good news is that there were 108 questions, so each question was not worth as much as they would have been on a shorter exam. It took me an hour and forty minutes to finish the exam. I knew the vast majority of questions immediately, but the dozen or so I wasn't sure about required me to sit and think them through at length before answering.

I am exhausted mentally.

I had a feeling this exam would not be a walk in the park. So I studied for an entire week (using several different sources). I wrote out three scratch pages worth of "brain dump" before I began the test...I think that helped me a LOT.

So now I have to wait a couple of weeks for the results. I HATE the Dantes exams with a passion.


NOTES:
--------

- Hinduism was by far the largest section on my version of this exam.
- Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Judaism came in a close second.
- Several questions about the formal study of religion (Eg, In the formal study of religion, what does such and such refer to?).
- Not even one question on Shinto.

- One question on the Synoptic Gospels.
- One question about the relative size/rank of Protestant denominations.

- Several comparison questions between Taoism and Confucianism (which one believes in such and such? Which emphasises such and such more than the other?...those type of questions).

Learning the terminology, names, and DATES for each religion is very useful. But you also need to know more in-depth info. For example: Don't just know that one of the Vedas is called the "Rig" Veda....also know what it's basic theme is. Don't just know the terms Shiite and Sunni...know how they differ!

Here are a few web sites I found useful:

ReligionFacts.com
This site is excellent but doesn't include Confucianism

BBC World Religions
Again, excellent, but it doesn't include Confucianism or Taoism.

ReligiousTolerance.org

Omsakthi.org

uri.org
For kids....but it's a great read.

Religion-cults.com

--
Hope this helps.

Good luck,
Beholdweb

P.S. I will update this thread with my score as soon as my results sheet arrives.

 

Keep us posted when you get your score! I need to take this test soon!

 

Hi bceagles,

I will post my score here when I get it. It may be a while because of Christmas and New Year. I hope I won't have to wait TOO long though.

Don't be scared of this exam! I don't think PASSING it is very difficult, as long as you prepare adequately and study deeply enough to grasp the underlying concepts and philosophies of each religion (in addition to basic names, dates, terms etc).

I think that, at least initially, studying for Intro to World Religions is a little more intimidating than some of the other exams simply because you have to grapple with lots of foreign words (Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic, Chinese etc.).

The strange-sounding words become easier to work with though, once you get into the swing of things (as things start to click in your brain and you can connect all the dots). It is WELL WORTH making sure you memorize as much of the basic terminology as possible though. Someone called this "low hanging fruit"....easy points! This will make up for some of the more difficult questions that may crop up on your exam.

Out of 108 questions, I would say I felt 'very' confident that I knew the correct answer to about 90. I felt 'mostly' confident that I knew the answer to a further 5-10, and there were maybe 6-12 questions that I either wasn't quite sure about or had to completely guess on (after much contemplation and a process of elimination).

I'm obviously hoping for an "A", but I won't know for sure until my score arrives.

Hopefully my feedback on this exam will help you and others to know more about what to expect going into it.

Good luck!


Beholdweb

 

Good Luck and thanks for the info!

 

that sounds EXACTLY like my version of the test and test experience. I scored a 62, an A for Excelsior.

I used "The Everything World's Religions Book"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580626483/qid=1135277148/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-0113523-9954524?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

and

"Religion for Dummies"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764552643/qid=1135277289/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-0113523-9954524?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

The "Everything" book gave me enough facts, and the "Dummies" book gave me enough theory of formal religion, plus I had good knowledge of Christianity and Muslin religion from watching documnetaries on the Middle East, terrorism and politics on my local PBS station.

My hardest problem with the test were questions that asked "who is" or "who did" and listed as choices names that were Buddhist and names that was Hindu, but I douldn't remember which was which. The names sounded very similar ro me. So I just took my best guess.

A little of this info, but not much carries over to the DANTES Middle East exam.

 

sounds very interesting ....wow ..I would like to learn on some of those things ..congrads on your taking the exam

 

Re: Re: Intro To World Religions (DANTES)

Thanks AGS,

I found the exam to be challenging but enjoyable to study for. I felt that I learned a lot as I prepared for it.

Take care,
Beholdweb

 

BEHOLDWEB-

I felt similarly about my exam: nailing around (or somewhat less than) half - narrowing the next thirty or so (POE of at least two answers), and then twenty or perhaps thirty that I simply didn't have a clue about!

People often say it's an "average" DANTES exam in difficulty. I beg to differ: it's one of the more difficult and challenging ones in the way multiple trees (I, II, and III) are employed to raise the level of difficulty (answers: A - I and II, B - I, II, and II, C - I or II, etc). One cannot merely ride it out based on knowing terms and theories alone: there is quite a bit of specific application, real comprehension instead of rote. I'm sure very high scores are relatively rare. Humbling.

This may simply reflect that the testers used to norm the DANTES were already well-informed or more motivated than exams on other subjects.

Worry not - I bet you did 60s or better - worthy of an 'A" (like I did). That's how I read your account.
It's made tougher when you think you ought to be earning a 75 or 80 before you faced the actual questions! And I think the sample questions are misleading in this respect - but fortunately only one of the few such cases with DANTES.

 

Orson,

Yep! I agree with you.

I haven't got my score yet, but it could literally be anywhere from the low 50s to the high 70s. With most exams, I have a fair idea of how well I did...but with this one I really don't know. I think I did very well...but we'll see.

The other exam that reminded me of the World Religions exam was the CLEP American Government exam. I studied extremely hard for that exam and felt confident that I had aced it when I clicked on SUBMIT...but I ended up with a 68. I felt certain I had hit the high 70s because I knew so many of the answers with surety. I can only assume that the curve is harder to overcome on the AG exam than on most of the other exams I have taken so far.

I don't know that anyone could 'ace' either of these two exams without some very serious study and a fair amount of luck.

It's just my opinion though, but I would never recommend anyone take American Government or Intro to World Religions 'cold' unless they would be happy with a bare minimum pass (I am going for the highest marks I can on each exam).

Pass them without any study at all? Maybe. Get an 'A' without any study at all? Probably not. This advice? Priceless!!!


Beholdweb

 

Hi All,

Just a quick update!

Today I finally got my Intro to World Religions score back from DANTES. Obviously Christmas and New Year caused a bit of a backlog for them. It is three weeks to the day since I took the exam. I usually get DANTES scores within two weeks.

Anyway, I ended up scoring a 76 on this exam.

What a relief!

Onward and upward,
Beholdweb

 

Nice Work! I Hope to take the exam soon!