In philosophy, your test is an essay with a small multiple-choice part after, you are not going to be told the question. ahead of time so study the overall theme of the unit to try and practice possible essay questions- they will usually be broad questions so you can apply examples from the whole unit. Try not to be late often, it is a big pet peeve of his. Your essay is critical- it is your application, communication and thinking mark while your multiple choice part is just knowledge(knowledge is pure memorization). Do not be afraid to ask him to repeat what he said- he will repeat it! Your journal assignments are a great way to boost your mark- you technically could do it the night before but try to save yourself at least 2 days as each entry is a minimum of 1 and a half pages and you will likely have 3/4 entries to complete. He usually collects it near the midterm and the second journal assignment near the end of the semester.