Midterm Exam — Instructions
Overview
This is the scored midterm for Critical Thinking. It checks the first half of the course, Weeks 1 to 7. That means finding an argument and writing it out, and judging the link between premises and a conclusion. It also means reading "if" sentences and claims about groups, watching how words carry meaning, and spotting a fallacy of relevance.
The midterm has 25 questions, and every question counts the same. Each question gives a short list and asks you to pick the one best fit. Every passage a question uses is printed inside the question and labelled illustrative, so you never need an outside source. Nothing depends on a picture: when a question involves a Venn diagram, the diagram is described in words.
Every question practices a skill you have already used in the weekly quizzes, lecture tutorials, and Argument Workshops. Most questions hand you a short passage, a rule, or a definition and ask which test it calls for, or what that test shows. Nothing on the midterm comes from outside Weeks 1 to 7.
Coverage and scope
The syllabus sets the midterm's scope as Objectives 1 to 4 as taught in Weeks 1 to 7. The form you will sit draws all 25 of its questions from the Weeks 1 to 7 question bank. Week 8 has no weekly quiz, so no question on this form comes from Week 8. Here is what the drawn form holds, objective by objective, with the weeks its questions come from:
- Identifying arguments (Objective 1, 5 questions): all 5 from Week 1. Be ready to tell a claim apart from a question, a command, or a report of a feeling. Sort an argument from an explanation by asking whether the supported claim is still in doubt for the audience. Treat an opinion as a claim whose support can still be weighed, and count the reasons a passage actually says out loud.
- Analyzing arguments (Objective 2, 5 questions): 3 from Week 2, 1 from Week 5, and 1 from Week 7. From Week 2, review where every line belongs in standard form and how a question used as a reason becomes a plain declarative premise. Review, too, which way the "against" arrows run on a map that shows an objection answered by a reply. The Week 5 question rewrites an everyday rule built on "only" into one of the four categorical forms. The Week 7 question asks what a charitable reading of a proposal requires before you reply to it.
- Evaluating deductive reasoning (Objective 3, 11 questions): 4 from Week 3, 5 from Week 4, and 2 from Week 5. From Week 3, review what valid means, what makes an argument deductive or inductive, strength in degrees and cogency, and how to find the inductive step in a mapped argument. From Week 4, review rewriting "only if" as "if, then", naming a form from its pattern, refuting an invalid form with a counterexample, the contrapositive against the converse, and necessary against sufficient conditions. From Week 5, review the names of the four categorical forms and how a Venn diagram with three circles divides into regions.
- Language and fallacies (Objective 4, 4 questions): 3 from Week 6 and 1 from Week 7. From Week 6, review the kinds of definition, equivocation, and how loaded wording can push a verdict while every fact it reports stays true. The Week 7 question asks you to name the Week 7 fallacy at work in a short passage.
By week, the 25 questions come out like this:
| Week | Topic | Questions | Objectives checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claims, arguments, and explanations | 5 | 1 |
| 2 | Analyzing arguments | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | Deductive and inductive reasoning | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | Conditionals and deductive forms | 5 | 3 |
| 5 | Categorical reasoning | 3 | 2 and 3 |
| 6 | Language and meaning | 3 | 4 |
| 7 | Fallacies of relevance | 2 | 2 and 4 |
Evaluating deductive reasoning carries the most questions by far, 11 of the 25, and Weeks 3, 4, and 5 supply all of them. Put the most review time on validity, soundness, strength, and cogency, on the conditional forms, and on the Venn method. Weeks 1 and 4 hold 5 questions each, the most of any single week, so the argument-or-explanation test and the conditional forms each deserve a careful pass. Identifying arguments and analyzing arguments come next with 5 questions each, and language and fallacies has 4.
By difficulty, 10 questions are easy, 11 are medium, and 4 are hard. The hard ones ask you to carry a whole test through rather than recall a term, and two of the four come from Week 4.
Week 8's fallacies of presumption, the false dilemma, begging the question, and the loaded question, are taught in Week 8 and practiced in its discussion and practice set. They are not part of the midterm's scope, and no question on this form comes from them. They are still worth an hour of practice: each one is the Week 2 move of writing out a hidden premise, used to catch an argument that quietly assumes what it should support.
These notes map the skills the midterm checks. The questions themselves are drawn from the course's question bank and are not listed here.
Instructions
- Attempts: one. The midterm is a single scored attempt.
- Time limit: there is no time limit. Take the time you need, as long as you submit before the exam closes.
- Window: the midterm opens in the Week 8 module and closes at the due time your instructor sets. Start early enough to finish comfortably inside that window.
- Navigation: the questions appear one at a time, and once you move on you cannot go back to an earlier question. Settle each one before you move to the next.
- Materials: every passage a question uses is printed in the question. Scratch paper helps for writing a passage in standard form, sketching three circles, or building a counterexample. Unless your instructor announces otherwise, the midterm is closed-note.
- After you submit: Canvas shows your result. The keyed choices stay hidden so the midterm stays fair for every student.
Academic integrity
The midterm is an individual, scored assessment, and it is closed to AI. Do not use a chatbot or any other AI tool, do not get help from another person, and do not share or post the questions during or after your attempt. These rules come from the course syllabus. The midterm confirms that you personally can identify an argument, write it out fairly, test its form, and name a fallacy.
The honest way to prepare is open to you. The study guide, the practice exam, and the exam-prep tutorial rehearse the same skills with fresh variants, and nothing on them appears on the midterm word for word.
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