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As for the exam format, I generally ask questions that take a lot of thought but can be answered with a couple of sentences or a well-turned phrase. The result is that you have to give each question a lot of thought, but they are still easier for me to grade quickly. This is the best trade-off that I've found when I try to avoid the aggravating elements of exams for larger classes (e.g., "multiple quess" questions. I also like to use photos and diagrams on exams. The end result of all this is that you need to take a little time thinking about the question I'm asking and making sure that you are answering the question I actually asked. This requires that you A) read the question carefully. Look for words like “compare” or “list” that will give you the “action” I am expecting. Then, you need to B) recall the information that relates to the question (write it down as bullet points). Then, C) REREAD THE QUESTION and figure out which of your bullet points actually relate to the question - and HOW. Too many people try to just take the ideas as they “pop up” in their brain and insert them into a rambling discourse. This can have two very bad consequences. First, the answer rambles and I have to work to find the answer mixed in with a bunch of non-related garbage. This can aggravate me, especially if yours is the 40th exam I looked at. Second, you can forget what the question was really asking and end up with a really great answer to a different question. I suggest you bring in some scrap paper and make some very short bullet points as you are going through this “brain dump” portion of the process. This will allow you to go back and look at each one after REREADING the question. You can cross out the ones that don’t relate – and organize the rest into a good answer. This is particularly powerful on essay questions.

One mechanical suggestion - look the whole exam over first and jot down a couple of notes on questions that might give you a problem. Then go ahead and answer other questions. Think about bulletring the essays first, so the ideas can "ferment" while you're tackling the earlier part of the exam. Too many people pour over the short-answer questions and end up leaving too little time for the essays. On the shorter ones, you will either know it or you won’t. If you spend a lot of time thinking about the "trick answer", you're going to panic when you reach ther essay(s). I suggest you bring a PENCIL to the exam - it makes corrections a LOT easier.

1. How do biologist and geologists view reefs differently? Why might these different perspectives arise?
2. Describe Darwin’s theory of atoll development? What large-scale processes do we now understand to be controlling this pattern?
3. What are the main differences between fringing and barrier reefs from the standpoint of susceptibility of environmental stress? How about from the standpoint of telling one from the other in a rock cliff?
4. What factors define a coral reef as an ecosystem? How do these factors contribute to both the past successes and the more recent environmental sensitivity of coral reefs?
5. What factors are most important in dictating what a particular reef will look like and what organisms live in, on and around it?
6. How do these and other factors dictate where reefs will be successful and not successful – both with and without human impacts?
7. Consider how different factors might work together (or influence each other) in controlling either where areef will occur or what it will look like.
8. Why are coral reefs generally limited to the tropics? Why are they more common on the western sides of ocean basins?
9. What is coral zonation? What factors contribute to it?
10. Why do branching corals dominate the reef crest?
11. One detail: make sure you know 1) the major parts of the reef system ( lagoon, backreef, ect.) and the major reef zones (not by species but by morphology – species are OK though).
12. How do different factors affect one another with respect to zonation? I could ask for examples or I could give you two (or three) and ask how they interact.
13. What are the main differences between autotrophs and heterotrophs? How does this relate to the creation and transfer of energy, metabolites, etc. through the reef system?
14. What are "guilds" and how do they help us to think about how coral reefs “work”? What is the advantage for geologists over using a system based on genus and species or autotroph vs heterotrophs?
15. What are the differences/relationships among polyps, corals, calices and colonies.
16. Discuss the relationship between calcification (Ca + 2HCO3 <--> CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O) and photosynthesis (CO2 + H22O <--> CH20 + O2) as they relate to coral reefs and reef corals. Make sure you understand the implications of too much CO2 or acidity.
17. Discuss the role of ATP in enhancing calcification in corals with zooxanthellae.
18. How do we characterize/measure patterns of coral abundance and diversity on a reef? How does this relate to calcification?
19. How is a coral growth band deposited?
20. How does coral growth change with water depth? Why?
21. If calcification is so costly, why bother?
22. Discuss how corals can make skeleton so efficiently.
23. Describe the reproductive cycle (icluding different options) for reef corals.
24. Discuss the pros and cons to the different types of coral reproduction.
25. Where do the sediments and nutrients we find on a reef come from?
26. What are the main effects of sediments and sedimentation on coral reefs?
27. Discuss the effects of spatial and temporal variability in natural sedimentation on coral reefs. What anthropogenic factors might change all of this?
28. What is the role of nutrient in coral reefs? Where are most of the nutrients derived from in a “healthy” coral reef?
29. What factors might change the nutrient balance in a reef? What would the adverse effects most likely be if we increased nutrients? Why?
30. Why does algal type matter when we think about coral reefs?
31. What are the sources of carbon and nutrients on a reef? What things can we do to throw this balance out of whack – and what will the effects be?
32. Why are autotrophs important in nutrient cycling within a reef system?
33. How does the reef-crest community change with changing wave energy?
26. What adaptations do colonies of A. palmata have to help them cope with high waves?
27. What is the difference between weather and climate?
28. How do waves form?
29. What are the effects of waves on a coral reef?
30. Why do the Trade Winds blow from east to west?
31. Why do hurricanes form near the equator?