DANTES Rise & Fall USSR exam thoughts

[ShotoJuku]

Hi All,

My prep for USSR is going well and I will probably take the exam this coming week or the week after (depending on the test center's schedule).

I am very much enjoying this material. My crazy old aunty, back in England, was an "armchair" Socialist. I spent many hours, as a kid, patiently listening to her rants about Marxism, the Soviets, and the evils of Capitalism. LOL

I loved her very much..but she was stark raving mad! I was the only person in the entire family who would ever just sit and listen to her.

Anyway, as a result, a lot of this information came flooding back to me once I began studying it.

It has certainly been a wild ride for the Russian people over the centuries, hasn't it? Those poor people. I almost stood up and clapped when I read the last item on Instantcert:

"On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as President and 6 days later, the USSR formally ceased to exist."

Yeah! Freedom!

I do have a couple more questions for the USSR Exam gurus amongst us...

1) Is it enough for me to memorize the names of a few of the major Russian writers, painters, architects etc? Or will they ask what their most famous works were as well? No real need to go overboard here, just know/recognize their names along with what they maybe related to should suffice.

2) One question on the DANTES fact sheet asked about the nationality of Gorbachev's Foreign Minister. Are there many of these type of questions on the exam? Is it enough to know the major players under each leader, or do I also need to know what nationality they were..and who their mother-in-law's best friend's sister was etc. (eesh)? Know the associated names that are connected together.

3) Are there any "map" questions on the exam (ie, identify this country on the map)? I didn't have any.

I think that's it for now...thanks for you patience,
Snazzlefrag

[COLOR="red"]Focus on the major events, players, places and dates. My original post in this thread says it all - GOOD LUCK.

BTW: Did your test center order the test for you yet??[/COLOR]