Final exam - 2012
| Class date(s): | 17 December 2012 |
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Final exam |
The final exam is scheduled for 17 December 2012 at 12:30, however, please confirm the date and time.
The exam will be comprehensive. It will cover all topics in the course, with emphasis on the topics covered most intensively during the course, economics, safety, operability and troubleshooting. It will also cover material from the SDL presentations and any enrichment topics presented in class.
Please bring to the exam:
- A list of the basic CRA classes for depreciation (see the section on 21 September)
- Inflation factors for the process industries, and be sure to understand when to use which particular index.
- The guidelines for troubleshooting
Answering questions in the final exam
The top paragraph of the exam contains these instructions:
- 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 in the answer booklet.
- Time saving tip: please use bullet points to answer, where appropriate, and never repeat the question back in your answer.
- WHERE APPROPRIATE, PART OF YOUR ANSWERS MAY BE SKETCHED ON THE EXAM QUESTION PAPER, which will also conveniently save you time. Please note this in your answer booklet.
- If any part of the question seems ambiguous, please make a clear and reasonable assumption, and continue your answer.
Exam breakdown
Given that 4N4 is not similar to any courses you've taken before, here is some guidance regarding the final exam.
Out of 100, but 102 points available.
- General questions from all parts of the course [37]
- Operability/SDL/Process drawings question [14]
- Economics question [20]
- Troubleshooting question [22]
- HAZOP question [9]
I will be have posted some questions for you to practice, particularly some troubleshooting questions. Please keep checking that page for updates.
How to prepare for the exam
- Understand the concepts being learned. My courses are not about applying the correct equation and solving.
- Check that your answers are reasonable and comment on whether they are, and especially if they seem unreasonable. This demonstrates that even though you have a calculation error, you have used your engineering judgement to identify that.
- Read the questions carefully: they are usually worded precisely. The biggest point where students loose marks is to answer only part of the question.
- Questions that you did on computer in the assignments: make sure you can repeat them by hand. Obviously not where you have to draw an entire economic analysis, but make sure the calculations can be done for one or two periods.
- Review and repeat all assignment questions that you do not understand. Do not rely on the assignment solutions: none of the final exam questions are going to be from the assignments (even with different values).
- Try some of the practice questions (they are not my questions).
- Regarding the SDL presentations: treat them as practice problems, especially for the HAZOP, safety and operability sections of the course. Look at the flowsheets shown in the presentations and check if they are reasonable. What would you do differently?
- I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, even though experience has shown me that most of you will disregard this advice: treat the exam as a closed-book test: have a formula sheet for the equations, and understand all the concepts without referring to a textbook. Textbooks and other papers should be used to refer to as a backup only.