Survey of Arabic Grammar

BEAUTIFUL ARABIC COURSE! Like WOW. Brilliant instructor, and a beautiful syllabus. In this course you learn about “شرح ابن عقيل على ألفية ابن مالك” (get the book online or buy it from AUB bookstore, it’s only like 20 dollars). Btw I recommend you get to original copy cuz it contains all the explanations for the poem. On the internet, you will only find the poem but not the explanation (which you will need for the exams as I shall elaborate later on). This book is a 1000 line poem (hence named ألفية, ya zake) which explains ALL of the Arabic grammar and syntax (which is quite amazing, I wish I saw this guy in person. Really impressive Arab!). In the course you cover only the first 200 lines or so (and some lines you skip, so it’s actually kinda less). The poem at first seems like an impossible puzzle to crack, but after a few explanations by the instructor you will then be able to understand the rest by yourself! You basically learn the Arabic grammar (ie. نحو وصرف) but ofc you mainly focus on the نحو part ie. The إعراب (parsing). A little bit of صرف is explained during the course but the main focus of the course is that you become I3rab Masters (IM). He will very often mention things outside the book so make sure you take note of these cuz he will bring them in the exams! Speaking of exams, all of his exams are the exact format, and the same is true for other grammar courses as well. The first question is always about “explain the following lines” and he gives you two or three lines from the poem to explain. You MUST get a full mark on it! There is no reason why you can’t get a full grade cuz the lines were already explained by him AND the book in case you missed anything. Maybe the difficulty here is that he will bring 2 lines out of the 100 you are responsible for but trust me it’s not that impossible as it seems. He doesn’t require a full blown eloquent and perfect explanation. Just make sure you give him examples (very important) and he will be content. If you want to write more just in case then go for it, but trust me he is not a harsh marker, just show him you understood what the line means. The second part of the exam is “give an example of the following”. In this section you have to give an example (a sentence more specifically) about a certain Arabic grammar phenomenon/word. Ie, to give a dumb grade 1 example, if he asks give me an example of “فعل مضارع” you write “هو يكتب”. Ofc this is just a stupid example, but what he will ask you will resemble this notion. Usually the examples he asks are either what he mentioned in class or what is written in the book. The third major part, is “Parse the following words/sentences” . it’s basically a passage and you have to give him the I3rab of the words (like 16 to 20 words on average). That’s the exam (the midterm and final is the same format). Now some tips: you MUST NOT register this course if you have no basics in Arabic grammar. For this course you have to know all the I3rabs you took in grade 9. He is not going to explain them in class, he assumes you know them. Moreover, you learn more advanced I3rab during the course, so don’t think this is an easy Arabic course if you forgot the I3rab. Now for those you have strong bases in I3rab, this course is not that difficult. I personally love i3rab so much and I didn’t feel there was this huge jump to what we were taking in class. It was all very manageable. And yes you can get high 80’s and 90’s in the course. It’s just like math, your i3rab is either right or wrong. Now for some study tips: make sure you take notes of anything he mentions about Arabic grammar that is an exception or a rarity. He will bring those in the exam. Moreover, before the midterm and final he will spend 2 to 3 sessions practicing on the i3rab with the class. Don’t skip this class and try to benefit as much from it as you can. These review sessions are extremely important because you will come across I3rabs that you will get in the exam. So study those i3rabs very well. Moreover, there are a lot of previouses you can practice on. What I did was that I solved all of them by myself and the ones I didn’t know I visited his offices hours and he was more than glad to help me! (Love him so much <3). Now let me give you another important tip. The professor is not the strict type who says, “10 % on your attendance, 30% midterm, 50 % final etc etc). He actually doesn’t give you the grading percentages in the beginning of the semester. This is actually very good for you guys. Rather, what he does is that he treats everyone separately to his/her own ADVANTAGE. For example, let’s say you messed up on the midterm, but let’s also suppose you really improved (ie you did better on the final) then he will consider your hard work and improvement and adjust the weight so that the midterm grade won’t affect you that much. He is so nice to you so show him you are working hard and leave the grading to him. Trust me he is a very good grader and he isn’t unfair to anyone. The grade you will get at the end of the semester will probably be much more than you actually deserve considering your midterms and finals. The way you earn this favour is by showing him you work hard and are interested in the subject. On the other hand, for those students who so clearly show that they don’t care (ie many unexcused absences, not preparing for the class etc etc) then you won’t receive his favour. He looks not only at the midterm and final grades but everything else. So be careful! Furthermore, apart from the attendance and exams, he does drop quizzes based the lines you were expected to read for that class. For me, he did 7 drop quizzes throughout the semester, and honestly they are very easy. These are grade boosters NOT the other way round. His questions are very simple (it’s based on lines you should have read before class [hint: try to be ahead of the class by 10~15 lines, ie: if you are working on line 20 for example in class, the drop question quiz will be about line 27 for example]). The quiz is only like 5 minutes (again just give him a few examples and two lines of explanation) and he JUST wants to check whether you are prepared for class. That’s it. Nothing more. He will use those drop quizzes as reference to see whether you are a responsible student or not and ofc will affect how generously or “stingily” he will grade you. Now unto to professor. 3anjad he is extremely amazing! His classes are very interesting and he talks a lot about Arab philosophy, culture, tradition, and poems. Trust me you learn much more than just Arabic grammar. Usually I get tired with 1hr 15 min classes, but with him that time flies quite fast. He is very humorous and loves to make the class interactive and interesting. He knows so much Arabic that you feel like a small idiot in front of him, but that’s okay, he will make you really smart at the end!