During your pledgeship process, you will be required to learn in-depth about the history of your fraternity. With many fraternities being founded in the 1800s, you’d be surprised by how much information there is to be quizzed on. While these history quizzes won’t require you to write super long essays, the content on these tests will be incredibly obscure and nearly impossible to memorize. But, as I’ve mentioned in previous survival guides, nothing is fair about pledging. So, here are some helpful tips that will hopefully be an aid to you in passing your history quizzes:
Befriend the Professor
Very similar to your actual college classes, it’s incredibly beneficial to build a strong relationship with your professor. Typically, there will be one brother who writes and grades your history quizzes, so find out who that is at the beginning of pledgeship and make sure you’re on his good side. A couple of pledge rides and a free meal should do the trick. By doing so, you reduce your chances of being punished if you do poorly on an exam. More often than not, your history quiz grade will determine your “activity” for the rest of the night, so earning some leniency from the professor is a very smart choice.
Cram, Cram, Cram
Every week, you’ll likely be given a Quizlet or Google Doc with information for your next history quiz. If you’re a try-hard, you’ll make sure to take time to memorize all of the names and dates, but no one likes that pledge. It’s better for your entire pledge class to fail a history quiz than for only one kid to do extremely well. Since you will probably have actual quizzes and exams to study for throughout the week, the best strategy for passing your history quizzes is to cram extremely hard twenty minutes before you take the quiz. This way, most of the information will be fresh in your head and you’ll probably pass as long as you didn’t hit a blinker right before. Being high during a lineup is never a good idea, especially on a quiz night.
Trivia Crack
As I said earlier, nothing is fair. You should expect one or two questions on every quiz that have absolutely nothing to do with the history of your fraternity. In order to be successful on these questions, I advise you to build a vast base of knowledge that spans many different areas of expertise. Trivia Crack is a great app to do so, but that’s not a necessity. The point of this tip is simply to be prepared for the unexpected. Additionally, do not try and be the funny guy and make fun of a brother in one of your answers. That’s a one-way ticket to a night in the cage.
Bring the Required Materials
In high school, if you forgot to bring a pencil or calculator to a big exam, most of the time you’d be able to borrow one from the teacher or a classmate. That will not be the case on your history quizzes. If your pledge master tells you to bring paper and a black pen, you bring exactly that. Not a blue pen. Not a pencil. A black pen will be the only acceptable writing utensil. What happens if you forget it? Automatic fail. If you’re lucky, whoever’s next to you might have an extra, but don’t hold your breath.
While some of the questions might seem dumb and irrelevant, learning the history of your fraternity is an extremely important step in the pledging process. Use these tips and tricks to really dive deep into your fraternities rich history, I promise it will be worth it. After all, how can you honor your ancestors with gravity-bong hits and key bumps if you don’t even know who they are?
