Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Entrance Examination — Questions and Answers

Question 1: What is 'mise-en-scène' in filmmaking?

The process of editing footage together in post-production
The musical score composed for a film
Everything visible within the film frame — set design, lighting, costume, actor placement, and camera position (Correct answer)
The script format used during pre-production

Correct answer: Everything visible within the film frame — set design, lighting, costume, actor placement, and camera position

Mise-en-scène refers to all the visual elements placed within the camera's frame: settings, props, lighting, costumes, and the staging of actors.

Question 2: What is the 'Freytag's Pyramid' model used for in narrative analysis?

Evaluating character development across a novel
Analyzing poetic meter and rhyme
Mapping the five-stage arc of dramatic structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement (Correct answer)
Classifying genres of fiction

Correct answer: Mapping the five-stage arc of dramatic structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement

Freytag's Pyramid is a dramatic structure model outlining exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution as the five stages of a narrative arc.

Question 3: The concept of 'negative space' in sculpture refers to:

Subtracted material from a block carving
The dark underside of a form that receives no light
Voids left intentionally in a mold before casting
The empty space surrounding or passing through a sculptural form (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The empty space surrounding or passing through a sculptural form

Negative space is the empty space defined by and interacting with the positive mass of a sculpture, and sculptors like Henry Moore exploited it to animate their work.

Question 4: In the context of new media art, what is 'telepresence'?

A live video presentation delivered remotely by an artist
The use of technology — robotics, streaming, or networked systems — to extend a person's presence and sensory experience to a remote location (Correct answer)
The practice of representing historical events as if they were live
A telephoto lens technique used in documentary filmmaking

Correct answer: The use of technology — robotics, streaming, or networked systems — to extend a person's presence and sensory experience to a remote location

Telepresence in new media art uses technology to allow a person to feel present in or interact with a distant location, often through robotics, live video, or networked interfaces.

Question 5: What is 'syntax' in the craft of prose writing?

The arrangement of words and phrases within sentences and how sentence structure shapes meaning and rhythm (Correct answer)
The use of alliteration and sound devices
The thematic argument a story makes
The choice of specific words and vocabulary level

Correct answer: The arrangement of words and phrases within sentences and how sentence structure shapes meaning and rhythm

Syntax in prose refers to the way sentences are constructed — length, clause arrangement, and order — which shapes the reader's pace, emphasis, and emotional experience.

Question 6: In the MFA workshop context, what is the primary purpose of a 'critique' or 'workshop session'?

To give the writer detailed feedback on craft while the writer listens without defending the work (Correct answer)
To compare the student's work to published authors
To publish the student's work in a literary journal
To grade the work according to a rubric

Correct answer: To give the writer detailed feedback on craft while the writer listens without defending the work

In an MFA workshop, classmates critique the work to help the writer improve; the writer traditionally listens without interruption to absorb undefended feedback.

Question 7: Who of the following artists created the 1889 work Starry Night?

Vincent Van Gogh (Correct answer)
Pablo Picasso
Georges Seurat
Claude Monet

Correct answer: Vincent Van Gogh

'The Starry Night' is one of the most famous paintings by the Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. Created in 1889 during his stay at an asylum, it depicts a dramatic, swirling night sky over a tranquil village, expressing his emotional state and unique vision. It is a quintessential example of his distinctive style and emotional intensity.

Question 8: What does 'in medias res' mean as a narrative technique?

Using multiple narrators simultaneously
Writing an extended prologue before the main events
Ending a story at its most suspenseful point
Beginning the story in the middle of the action rather than at the chronological beginning (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Beginning the story in the middle of the action rather than at the chronological beginning

'In medias res' is Latin for 'into the middle of things' — a technique where the narrative begins mid-action, with backstory revealed gradually.

Question 9: What is 'site-specificity' in contemporary art?

A legal term for the copyright of public sculptures
Archiving artworks at the site where they were created
Creating art using materials found only in one geographic region
Creating work conceived for and inseparable from its particular physical, social, or institutional location (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Creating work conceived for and inseparable from its particular physical, social, or institutional location

Site-specific art is created in response to a particular location's physical, historical, or social conditions, and its meaning is fundamentally tied to that context.

Question 10: What is 'lyric essay' as a creative nonfiction form?

A personal essay written entirely in verse
A genre-blurring form combining the associative, imagistic qualities of poetry with the exploratory argumentation of the essay (Correct answer)
A journalistic essay focused on musical criticism
An academic essay analyzing lyric poetry

Correct answer: A genre-blurring form combining the associative, imagistic qualities of poetry with the exploratory argumentation of the essay

The lyric essay blends poetic fragmentation, imagery, and associative leaps with the nonfiction essay's intellectual exploration, resisting linear argument.

Question 11: What is 'appropriation art' as practiced by artists like Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince?

Restoring historical artworks for museum collections
Using traditional craft techniques from other cultures
Creating original works inspired by nature
The act of taking existing images, objects, or artworks and recontextualizing them as new art, raising questions about authorship and originality (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The act of taking existing images, objects, or artworks and recontextualizing them as new art, raising questions about authorship and originality

Appropriation art involves directly taking and recontextualizing existing cultural images or objects, challenging concepts of originality, authorship, and the art market.

Question 12: What is the 'sublime' as an aesthetic concept in art and visual culture?

The quality of technical excellence in craftsmanship
An overwhelming aesthetic experience of awe, terror, and grandeur that exceeds the limits of beauty (Correct answer)
A standard of perfect classical beauty and proportion
A minimalist aesthetic that rejects ornamentation

Correct answer: An overwhelming aesthetic experience of awe, terror, and grandeur that exceeds the limits of beauty

The sublime, theorized by Burke and Kant, describes an overwhelming aesthetic experience of awe tinged with terror — typically provoked by vast, powerful natural forces beyond human scale.

Question 13: What is 'enjambment' in poetry?

A stanza of exactly four lines with alternating rhyme
A pause at the end of a poetic line created by punctuation
The continuation of a sentence or phrase beyond the end of a line without a pause (Correct answer)
The repetition of a phrase at the beginning of multiple lines

Correct answer: The continuation of a sentence or phrase beyond the end of a line without a pause

Enjambment occurs when a sentence or clause runs past the end of a poetic line without a grammatical pause, creating forward momentum and tension.

Question 14: What is a 'consignment agreement' in the context of selling artwork through a gallery?

A legal agreement requiring the gallery to insure all works against damage
A contract by which an artist permanently transfers ownership of a work to a gallery
A gallery's right to reproduce and license an artwork for promotional use
An agreement in which the artist retains ownership of the work until it sells, at which point the gallery takes a commission and remits the remainder to the artist (Correct answer)

Correct answer: An agreement in which the artist retains ownership of the work until it sells, at which point the gallery takes a commission and remits the remainder to the artist

A consignment agreement means the gallery exhibits and sells the work on the artist's behalf; ownership stays with the artist until sale, after which the gallery retains a commission (typically 40–50%).

Question 15: What is the 'auteur theory' in film criticism?

The theory that films are collaboratively authored and no single person is responsible for their vision
A French legal framework protecting film copyright
A theory that the screenwriter is the most important contributor to a film
The view that a film's director is its primary creative author, expressing a consistent personal vision across their body of work (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The view that a film's director is its primary creative author, expressing a consistent personal vision across their body of work

Auteur theory, popularized by French critics in Cahiers du Cinéma, identifies the director as the film's primary author whose personal style and themes recur across different projects.

Question 16: What is 'defamiliarization' (ostranenie) as a literary concept?

The use of dialect to mark a character as an outsider
The technique of presenting familiar things in an unfamiliar way to make the reader perceive them freshly (Correct answer)
The process of giving foreign characters unfamiliar names
Writing a story set in an exotic, unknown location

Correct answer: The technique of presenting familiar things in an unfamiliar way to make the reader perceive them freshly

Defamiliarization, coined by Viktor Shklovsky, describes how literary art estranges ordinary objects or experiences so readers see them anew rather than automatically.

Question 17: In playwriting, what is the 'fourth wall'?

The imaginary barrier between the performers and the audience that characters typically ignore (Correct answer)
The stage direction indicating a scene change
The script's final act of dramatic resolution
The stage's back curtain or cyclorama

Correct answer: The imaginary barrier between the performers and the audience that characters typically ignore

The fourth wall is the conceptual barrier between the fictional stage world and the audience; breaking it means having characters directly address the audience.

Question 18: Which early 20th-century movement rejected traditional artistic forms and embraced irrationality, chance, and anti-bourgeois provocation?

Futurism
Dada (Correct answer)
Cubism
Surrealism

Correct answer: Dada

Dada emerged during World War I as an anti-war, anti-bourgeois art movement that used absurdism, chance operations, and provocative gestures to challenge traditional art.

Question 19: What does 'iconography' mean in the study of art history?

The cataloging of artworks by geographic region
The technical analysis of painting materials and pigments
The identification and interpretation of the content and symbolic meaning of images (Correct answer)
The historical study of icon-making in Byzantine Christianity

Correct answer: The identification and interpretation of the content and symbolic meaning of images

Iconography is the branch of art history concerned with identifying and interpreting the subject matter, symbols, and conventional meanings depicted in artworks.

Question 20: Which photographic process, popular in the 19th century, produces a unique positive image on a thin metal plate?

Cyanotype
Tintype (ferrotype) (Correct answer)
Albumen print
Daguerreotype

Correct answer: Tintype (ferrotype)

The tintype (ferrotype) produces a direct positive image on a lacquered iron sheet, making it both unique and durable.

Question 21: What is the difference between 'scene' and 'summary' in prose fiction?

Scene is written in first person; summary in third person
Scene is present tense; summary is past tense
Scene uses dialogue; summary does not
Scene dramatizes a moment in real-time detail; summary condenses time and events into narrated overview (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Scene dramatizes a moment in real-time detail; summary condenses time and events into narrated overview

A scene slows the narrative to dramatize a moment with dialogue, action, and sensory detail in real time; summary compresses events, moving the story quickly through time.

Question 22: Which theoretical framework, introduced by Judith Butler, argues that gender identity is not innate but performed through repeated acts and behaviors?

Performativity theory (Correct answer)
Marxist materialist theory
Psychoanalytic theory
Structuralism

Correct answer: Performativity theory

Butler's performativity theory holds that gender is constructed through repeated, stylized performances rather than being a natural expression of an inner biological essence.

Question 23: What artistic style, prominent in the 1980s, rejected modernist purity and quoted, combined, and ironically referenced multiple historical styles?

Neo-Classicism
Expressionism
Postmodernism (Correct answer)
Surrealism

Correct answer: Postmodernism

Postmodernism in art rejected the modernist grand narrative and embraced pastiche, appropriation, irony, and the mixing of high and low cultural references.

Question 24: What is 'Minimalism' as an art movement of the 1960s?

A movement characterized by simple geometric forms, industrial materials, and the elimination of personal expression or illusionism (Correct answer)
A reaction against Abstract Expressionism that returned to figurative painting
A movement using tiny, intricate details visible only under magnification
A literary movement advocating shorter, more economical prose

Correct answer: A movement characterized by simple geometric forms, industrial materials, and the elimination of personal expression or illusionism

Minimalism stripped art to its essential geometric forms using industrial fabrication, rejecting the emotional gesture of Abstract Expressionism and the illusion of pictorial space.

Question 25: What is the role of an 'MFA thesis committee' in the graduate thesis process?

They are a group of faculty and sometimes external advisors who guide, evaluate, and ultimately approve the student's thesis exhibition and written document (Correct answer)
They control the budget for the student's thesis exhibition production
They represent the student during gallery representation negotiations after graduation
They select which students are accepted into the MFA program

Correct answer: They are a group of faculty and sometimes external advisors who guide, evaluate, and ultimately approve the student's thesis exhibition and written document

The thesis committee mentors the student throughout their final year, provides critical feedback on developing work, and evaluates the thesis exhibition and written component at the final defense.

Question 26: What is 'color grading' in post-production?

Ranking color palettes used in production design
The process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, adjusting exposure, contrast, and color balance to achieve a specific look or mood (Correct answer)
A method of digitally removing color from black-and-white footage
The process of color-correcting photographs before printing

Correct answer: The process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, adjusting exposure, contrast, and color balance to achieve a specific look or mood

Color grading is a post-production process where colorists manipulate hue, saturation, contrast, and exposure across a film to create a unified visual tone and emotional mood.

Question 27: Which art movement, emerging in New York in the 1940s–50s, emphasized spontaneous, gestural, large-scale painting as a direct expression of the artist's psyche?

Pop Art
Minimalism
Abstract Expressionism (Correct answer)
Op Art

Correct answer: Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism, exemplified by Pollock, de Kooning, and Rothko, prioritized spontaneous gesture, scale, and emotional directness over representation.

Question 28: What is 'dramatic irony' in literary writing?

When a character says the opposite of what they mean
When the audience knows information that a character in the story does not (Correct answer)
When the setting creates a feeling of danger
When the plot takes an unexpected turn

Correct answer: When the audience knows information that a character in the story does not

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience possesses knowledge about the situation that at least one character lacks, creating tension or dark comedy.

Question 29: Which term describes a sculpture created by joining together found objects or pre-existing materials?

Assemblage (Correct answer)
Modeling
Carving
Casting

Correct answer: Assemblage

Assemblage is a sculptural technique in which artists combine found objects, disparate materials, or pre-made items into a unified three-dimensional work.

Question 30: What is 'the male gaze' as theorized by Laura Mulvey in film and visual culture?

The historical tradition of male patronage in the arts
The tendency of male artists to paint self-portraits
A camera technique that lowers the viewpoint to a masculine perspective
The way visual media is structured to present the world from a heterosexual male perspective, objectifying women for the pleasure of an assumed male viewer (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The way visual media is structured to present the world from a heterosexual male perspective, objectifying women for the pleasure of an assumed male viewer

Laura Mulvey's 1975 essay described how mainstream cinema structures visual pleasure around the heterosexual male viewer, presenting women as passive objects of the gaze.

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Entrance Examination

The MFA entrance exam assesses candidates' knowledge across core fine arts disciplines including art history and theory, creative writing and literary forms, and film and digital media arts to qualify for graduate-level study in fine arts programs.

Questions

35 min

Time Limit

60%

To Pass

Checking for saved progress...

Exam Rules

You can skip questions and return to them later
Flag questions for review before submitting
No feedback shown until you submit the entire exam
Unanswered questions count as wrong — answer everything
10 pretest questions are mixed in and don't affect your score
Timer auto-submits when time runs out
Your progress is auto-saved every 30 seconds