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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who settles Harlan?

2. What does Gladwell say about reading schools at the end of one year compared to at the beginning of the next year?

3. How are these proxy wars characterized?

4. What determines the amount of crops taken by the government each year?

5. What pattern does Gladwell examine in Kentucky?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Joe Flom work for a large, prestigious law group when he graduates from law school?

2. How do Korean Airlines change their bad record of crashes?

3. What does Suren Ratwatte say about a Colombian airliner that crashes in New York?

4. What is the second part of the experiment and the final result?

5. How do the students at KIPP Academy differ from those of other public schools?

6. Describe the plane crash of Korean Airlines Flight 801 in 1997.

7. What experiment do Dov Cohen and Richard Nisbett conduct in the 1990s?

8. What does Gladwell say about early American educational theorists?

9. What is Gladwell's interpretation of Cohen and Nisbett's experiment?

10. What is the third lesson of Joe Flom?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The suggestion Gladwell takes from these numbers is that while efforts are being made to reduce class size and improve school facilities, the facts point to a simpler solution for children who are falling behind in school. They need more of it.

This is part of the philosophy behind the KIPP Academy. Students are at school until 5 o'clock in the evening. They attend class on Saturdays, and go for an extra three weeks in the summer. They spend on average fifty percent more time in class than students in the regular schools.

1. Discuss, in depth, why educators believe smaller class size would help students. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Explain why you would or would not be willing to attend KIPP. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Do you think education is the most important part of a child's life or do you think it is secondary to other areas? Why or why not? Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Gladwell gives the reader an overview of his ideas about success in Outliers. Discuss one of the following:

1. Discuss Gladwell's opinions of three topics he discussed in relation to success. Do you agree or disagree with him? Why? Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Compare and contrast Gladwell's opinions from Outliers with what you might imagine Gladwell's opinion might be had he lived 100 years ago. How do you think his opinions would change? Would they remain the same? Explain fully. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Discuss how you think Gladwell's view on several topics from this essay informs his life as a researcher. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Wolf concludes that there is something about the town itself that keeps its residents free from heart disease. He discovers that the town has a very high sense of community. People are very social and several generations of families live together. There are many clubs and other organizations and people are involved with their community. These seem to be contributing conditions to the relative good health of the residents of Roseto. It is not who they are as individuals, but where they are from that keeps them healthy.

1. Why do you think being a member of a close-knit community might make a person healthier? Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

2. Do you think a group of individuals from the same area who are more unhealthy than the average American could be unhealthy because of where they live? Why or why not? Make up an example of why this might be true. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

3. Discuss what makes a community close-knit and how a small town that does not have a close-knit community might be able to promote one. Use examples from Outliers to support your answer.

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