The CUNY Proficiency Exam (CPE) is designed to test your reading, writing and critical thinking abilities. You must show in Part I that you can read and understand a pair of passages, summarize the longer reading in relation to a particular topic, compare and contrast the readings in relation to that topic, correctly and appropriately quote and paraphrase from the passages, state your own opinion on the topic, and explain your reasons for your opinion in a well-written essay.

You will receive the longer reading passage at least a week before the test date. Use the time to read and study the passage. (Did you ever understand a text better after you'd read it twice? Then read the passage at least twice, and take notes.) Below is an example of a long reading selection used in previous CPEs. Read and study it carefully.

(You can print out the passage and make notes on the hardcopy, if you wish.) To help you analyze the reading, choose a significant quotation from it, one that states an important point the reading makes. For example:

...neither teachers nor students are willing to undertake "risks for understanding"; instead they content themselves with safer "correct-answer compromises."

Under such compromises, both teachers and students consider the education to be a success if students are able to provide answers that have been sanctioned as correct. Of course, in the long run, such a compromise is not a happy one, for genuine understandings cannot come about so long as one accepts ritualized, rote, or conventionalized performances.

To make sure you understand it, and to practice an important writing skill, you should paraphrase the quotation you choose, that is, rewrite it in your own words. (For more information on and examples of successful quoting and paraphrasing, access the Writing Center handout on Quotation, Paraphrase, and Plagiarism.)

One of the following choices is a good paraphrase of the quoted passage given above. Choose the best paraphrase from among the following:

1. If students and teachers take risks, they will be safer and more content in their future lives.

2. Students are often too concerned with getting the "right answer."

3. Neither today's educators, nor the students in their classes seem willing to take risks when working to understand something, but instead find it safer to concentrate on getting the 'right' answers.

4. When learning something new, few people seem to be comfortable taking a chance on getting something wrong, even if risking failure brings with it the potential for greater comprehension.

Another technique to use to study a piece of reading is to summarize it. (You might want to consult the Writing Center handout on Writing a Summary.) A summary includes the important points from a passage; to choose the important points you must analyze and evaluate the ideas presented in the reading.

When you arrive at the exam, you will be given a booklet that will include your writing assignment. Part of the assignment is to read another, shorter passage, Reading Selection B, in this case an excerpt from Lewis Thomas's The Medusa and the Snail. Read it carefully. (You can print out a hardcopy on which to make notes; when you take the test, you will be able to make notes in the exam booklet.)

Now, read the following writing assignment, which was used with the Gardner and Thomas reading selections.

(Sample Writing Assignment)
With these reading selections by Howard Gardner and Lewis Thomas in mind, write an essay in which you discuss error and learning. In your essay summarize Howard Gardner's criticism of the schools. Draw a relationship between Gardner's ideas and what you have just read (in Thomas's passage) about the value and utility of error. In light of the reading selections, describe your own experience or observations of learning, either in school or out. Discuss the degree to which your experience does or does not reflect the ideas of Gardner or Thomas or both. You may address these points in any order, but be careful to respond to all parts of the assignment and to connect your thoughts into a single, clearly-organized essay. Make specific references to the readings to support your ideas.

Note how the topic you will write about is not exactly the topic of the longer reading selection, by Gardner. (Gardner wrote about how schools failed to teach students to understand the subjects taught; the assignment focuses on the relation of error and learning.)

This is not exactly a compare/contrast essay; it is an essay on a topic that includes and integrates ideas and information from both readings and from the writer's personal perspective. How does the issue, the relationship of error and learning, affect or relate to your life? How are your ideas on error and learning like and/or unlike the ideas of both Gardner and Thomas?

After considering the readings and your own experience, what point can you make about the issue? How do you think error relates to learning? That will be the main point, the thesis, of your essay. (The Writing Center handout on Thesis can help you.) Which of the following statements would make the best thesis for an essay on this topic?

1. In my opinion, there is more value in error.

2. In their essays, Gardner and Thomas both discuss the value and utility of error.

3. I agree with both Gardner and Thomas when they suggest that risking failure is the best way to achieve true understanding.

4. In school, as in life, true understanding comes not when someone is able to memorize facts and come up with rote responses to questions; rather it comes as a result of acquiring the ability to learn from one's own mistakes and synthesize intuitive responses with the information taken from formal learning.

With your thesis in mind, go back over the reading selections. Look for evidence to support your thesis. Evidence can include examples from your experience or the readings that show that your ideas are valid, based on knowledge and logic, and quotations that show that an author agrees with your ideas. You may need to define important terms; for example, what does Gardner think "learning" is? How do you define it?

An outline is a good tool to use to assemble and organize the ideas and evidence that will go into your essay. The writing assignment itself suggests an order for the information given in the essay:

I. "(S)ummarize" Gardner's ideas
II. "Draw a relationship" between Gardner and Thomas's ideas
III. "(D)escribe" and "(d)iscuss" your experience and ideas

But the assignment also says, "(y)ou may address these points in any order." An alternative outline might read like the ones that follow:

**For humans to be able to develop and grow, change is needed.

-Thomas: least sophisticated life forms are most 'perfect,' but stagnant (quote, page 2) -(Add thesis: In school, as in life, true understanding comes not when someone is able to memorize facts and come up with rote responses to questions; rather it comes as a result of acquiring the ability to learn from one's own mistakes and synthesize intuitive responses with the information taken from formal learning. )

**How is this sophisticated learning to be taught?

-Gardner points to failure of educational system (quote: 'risks for understanding') 2 examples from article: human language acquisition-good, Gardner's daughter's experience with physics -bad

**Making mistakes (as Thomas notes) is key.

-Example: The film WAR GAMES and computer learning about futility of war through failure.

A strong, clear thesis and a detailed outline can help you "to connect your thoughts into a single, clearly-organized essay," as the assignment advises.

You are ready now to write your essay. You have read the material, developed ideas on the topic, including a thesis, gathered and organized relevant information--you have performed the pre-writing steps of the writing process. When you take the CUNY Proficiency Exam, you will have at least week to study the long reading selection, and on the test date, you will have two hours to perform the rest of the pre-writing steps: read the short essay and the assignment, develop ideas on the topic, state a thesis, write an outline and then write your essay.