Comprehensive First-Year Academic Seminar, Exam Preparation, and University Policies Guide

Community Engagement and Service Opportunities

  • Mercy School Partnership Overview:
    • Mercy School is a local educational institution catering to students whose specialized academic and developmental needs cannot be accommodated within standard general education classrooms.
    • DeSales University maintains an established institutional partnership with Mercy School, aligning closely with its core service and community engagement mission.
    • Campus collaborations include hosting Mercy School students for career shadowing programs and accommodating on-campus job coaches.
  • Annual Spaghetti Dinner Volunteering:
    • Mercy School hosts an annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser that relies heavily on volunteer support.
    • An alumnus currently working as a job coach at Mercy School coordinated this specific volunteer outreach.
    • The event provides an avenue for university students seeking fulfilling community service experiences or required service hours.
    • Details and volunteer sign-ups are distributed via Brightspace and Bark.

Upcoming Course Deadlines and Assignments

  • Exploration Activity 4: Campus Fitness and Recreation:
    • Core Objective: Familiarize all students—athletes and non-athletes alike—with campus physical wellness resources, exercise facilities, and health amenities.
    • Location and Activity: Students must visit the Valera facility and complete a short 30-minute physical workout. Permissible activities include walking around the track, jogging, playing a recreational game, or engaging in collaborative movement with peers.
    • Documentation Requirements:
    • Group members must take three specific photographs:
      • One photograph inside Valera.
      • One photograph outside the facility.
      • One photograph actively demonstrating the workout session.
    • Every individual group member must independently upload all three photographs to the assignment portal on Brightspace.
    • No written reflection or summary document is required for this assignment.
    • Due Date: Saturday at 11:59 PM, scheduled immediately prior to Pacer Break.
  • Labuda Theatre Performance Exploration:
    • Ticketing Procedure:
    • First-year students are allocated one complimentary ticket voucher.
    • Students must physically obtain the voucher from the Character U office.
    • The voucher must be presented at the Labuda box office to redeem the physical admission ticket.
    • While online ticket purchases are possible, they require personal payment and bypass the free student allocation.
    • Submission and Deadlines:
    • Performances must be attended prior to the formal assignment cutoff on November 21.
    • Students are required to turn in their physical ticket stub directly to the instructor, either immediately following attendance or by the November 21 deadline.
  • CliftonStrengths Assessment:
    • Individual access codes have been distributed via email.
    • The online portal is currently open for early completion and submission.
    • The firm completion deadline is October 31 (Halloween).

Midterm Core Values Essay Requirements

  • Assignment Structure and Scope:
    • Students must attend a minimum of three campus values-based events throughout the semester.
    • Qualifying events are sourced from the curated list compiled and distributed by the First Year Experience coordinator, as well as approved events listed on Bark.
    • Events outside official lists are acceptable provided the student explicitly connects the experience back to the university's core values within the written essay.
    • Benchmarking progress: Students should ideally have attended at least two values-based events by mid-semester to avoid scheduling bottlenecks.
  • Attendance Verification and Academic Integrity:
    • Unlike other First Year Experience course sections that mandate sign-in sheets or administrative documentation, attendance verification relies directly on student adherence to academic integrity.
    • Falsifying attendance constitutes a direct violation of the institution's academic integrity policy, as covered in foundational sessions with librarian Kathleen.
  • Character U Integration (Double-Dipping):
    • Attending approved values-based events allows students to fulfill two academic requirements simultaneously.
    • Students may use a single event both as material for the Core Values Essay and to claim official Character U credit by submitting the corresponding Character U credit form.

Academic Scheduling, Advising, and Guest Lectures

  • Upcoming Schedule Modifications:
    • Friday Individual Conferences: One-on-one student meetings continue as scheduled, with schedule confirmation notices sent via email.
    • Pacer Break: Classes are suspended on Monday and Tuesday of next week; regular instruction resumes on Wednesday and Friday.
  • Title IX and Campus Safety Lecture:
    • Guest Speaker: C.L. Lindsey, University Title IX Coordinator, will present on the Friday following Pacer Break.
    • Context and Rationale: Prompted by contemporary collegiate news developments regarding sexual assault incidents at Cornell University, the session provides transparency regarding campus support mechanisms.
    • Topics of Discussion: DeSales reporting procedures, supportive resources for survivors of sexual assault, institutional protocols, and open student inquiry.
  • Academic Advising and Spring Registration:
    • Individual advising sessions commence in mid-to-late October to plan spring semester course loads.
    • Students must arrange formal advising appointments to review major requirements and potential electives.
    • Strategic Course Scheduling: Because first-year cohorts register last in the administrative sequence, students should formulate redundant academic schedules (Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D) to anticipate filled courses.

Objective Exam Strategies: True/False and Fill-in-the-Blank

  • True/False Test Construction Principles:
    • Quantifiers and Absolute Terms:
    • Absolute qualifiers—such as never, always, and none—frequently indicate that a statement is false, as a single exception invalidates the premise.
    • Relative or conditional qualifiers—such as likely, most, almost always, and probably—statistically correlate with true statements.
    • Baseline Statistical Probabilities:
    • Objective exam designers statistically generate more true statements than false statements. When uncertain, selecting "True" represents a statistically higher probability of correctness.
    • Specificity and Detail:
    • Statements containing exact numerical figures or specific historical assertions (e.g., "Babe Ruth had 16 home runs in one season") are more frequently true due to the factual precision required by the question author.
  • Fill-in-the-Blank Exam Mechanics:
    • Cognitive Demand: University-level fill-in-the-blank questions generally omit word banks, assessing direct recall and practical conceptual application rather than passive recognition.
    • Syntactical and Grammatical Indicators:
    • Indefinite articles immediately preceding the blank provide phonological cues (e.g., "a" implies a subsequent consonant sound, whereas "an" necessitates an initial vowel sound).
    • Structural Indicators:
    • The physical length of the blank space and the number of distinct blanks provided can indicate word length or whether a compound term is expected.

Multiple-Choice Exam Strategies

  • Question Identification: Correct vs. Best Answer:
    • Critical distinction must be made between questions seeking a single factual truth and those demanding the evaluation of the "best choice."
    • In advanced natural sciences (such as Biology) and pre-medical fields, instructors frequently author multiple-choice items where several options are factually accurate, requiring students to contextualize and select the most comprehensive or clinically appropriate answer.
  • Strategic Answering Methods:
    • The Cover-Up Method:
    • Students physically obscure the multiple-choice options using scrap paper or their hand while reading the initial prompt.
    • Formulating an answer mentally prior to reviewing choices prevents cognitive distraction from deliberate distractor options.
    • Systematic Elimination:
    • Read all choices completely; eliminate verifiably false options to improve statistical odds.
    • Managing Second-Guessing:
    • Extensive exam administration data reveals that overthinking and altering initial intuitive selections typically changes correct responses into incorrect ones. Initial instinct should remain unchanged unless a concrete factual error is identified.
    • Linguistic Precision:
    • Pay strict attention to specialized vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammatical modifiers. For instance, in questions addressing "foreign aid," distractors might encompass generalized international policy initiatives, but only one choice directly addresses economic or humanitarian assistance.

Essay and Long-Answer Exam Strategies

  • Prompt Deconstruction:
    • Actively highlight or underline directive verbs and core requirements within the prompt (resembling Text-Dependent Analysis methods) to prevent overlooking necessary sub-questions under time constraints.
  • Pre-Writing Outlining:
    • Dedicate the initial minutes of testing time to drafting a rough skeletal outline.
    • Outlining secures a structural framework ensuring critical terminology, dates, personal names, and conceptual frameworks are systematically recorded.
    • If essay prompts are distributed prior to the examination date, construct and rehearse comprehensive outlines during regular study intervals.
  • Thesis Formulation:
    • Draft an explicit, focused thesis statement at the onset of the response to serve as an organizational anchor, ensuring the narrative remains directly responsive to the grading criteria.

Exam Readiness and Anxiety Management

  • Physiological Foundation for Testing:
    • Academic performance relies heavily on basic biological readiness: obtaining adequate restorative sleep, eating a balanced breakfast, maintaining proper physical hydration, and employing cognitive positive self-talk.
  • Proactive Test Anxiety Interventions:
    • Test anxiety is widespread among university students and can be mitigated through learned behavioral techniques.
    • Students experiencing acute evaluative anxiety should proactively schedule consultations with the campus Counseling Center (referencing outreach by Erin) to develop emotional regulation strategies before entering the testing environment.

Questions & Discussion

  • Inquiry on Values Events Updates:
    • Question (Angela): Inquired whether an updated schedule of values-based campus activities would be published for student reference.
    • Response: The official comprehensive event schedule is developed and released by the First Year Experience coordinator (Dr.). The document will be posted on Brightspace immediately upon administrative receipt. In the interim, students may independently identify eligible activities through the Bark platform or campus informational flyers, provided they explicitly connect the activity back to institutional core values.