Final exam - 2014

Final exam date:

14 April 2014, at 14:00

• Date: Monday, 14 April
• Starting time: 14:00
• Duration: 3 hours
• Locations: IWC-1

What will be covered in the final exam?

The final exam will cover all material in the course. The exam will focus mainly on the material since the midterms, however, all material is examined in the final. Work done since the second midterm is heavily dependent on the prior work, since this course is extremely cumulative, as mentioned (too) many times over the past semester.

Answering questions in the final exam

The following information will appear at the top of your exam paper; please take a minute to read all lines carefully, particularly the 4th and 5th points.

• You may bring in any printed materials to the exam; any textbooks, any papers, etc.
• You may use any calculator during the exam.
• You may answer the questions in any order on any pages of the answer booklet.
• Important: Please start each question on a new page.
• If any part of the question seems ambiguous, please make a clear and reasonable assumption, and continue your answer.

How to prepare for the final exam

• Here's a quote from Dr Marlin after reviewing my exam: "... requires more thinking and fewer derivations. I think that these questions represent the skills and knowledge that they will apply in their careers" .
• Understand the concepts being learned. My courses are never about finding the right equation, plugging values in and solving. You will obviously need to use equations, but the end goal is to demonstrate your understanding of the material, and that you can apply it to new situations.
• You will see that you probably don't even need a calculator for this exam. All of the questions are about understanding and using the material, demonstrating your knowledge of what the equations mean.
• Read the questions carefully: they are usually worded precisely. The biggest point where students lose marks is to answer only one part of the question, or they answer what they hope the question is asking.
• Work through many of the practice questions on the website. They have full solutions.
• Work through all the tutorial problems again, making sure you understand the core concepts. The tutorials are posted on the course home page.