Preparing for the final

The final exam will be Wednesday, December 10, 2008, in our usual room. Please do not be late. The time you have for the exam will be 12:30 pm until 2.30 pm, sharp.

I will have my usual office hours on Monday, December 8, from 3 -- 5 pm. The best use of office hours is if you bring specific questions.

For class on Friday, December 5, I will not prepare any lecture material. Instead, I'll answer whatever questions you have. This works best if you bring specific questions.

For the final exam you are responsible for all the material we have covered in class. That means any topic we covered in lecture, homeworks, and the readings. Anything we talked about in class is fair game, as is anything from the readings -- except things I never mentioned in class.

Bring a calculator. No sharing calculators during the exam.

You are allowed to bring (and use) one (1) 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with whatever written on it you like. Yes, both sides, if you like.

No books, notebooks, homeworks, computers, etc. will be allowed for the exam.

I will give you with the exam a sheet with all relevant formulas and constants.

The emphasis of the final --- like the midterm --- will be on concepts, not calculations, although the exam may not be calculation-free.

The exam will be worth a total of 120 points, and I will label each question with its point value. Most of will you probably want to use the entire 120 minutes to work on the exam.

Advice for taking the exam: (1) Read the entire exam through carefully first. The extra minute required to do this will more than pay off if you can budget your time well. (2) Budget your time carefully! You should probably spend the most time on the questions which are worth the most. Remember, the exam will be 120 minutes and 120 points -- this should suggest how to allot your time.

Back to the main course page

Last modified: 1 December 2008