Math 31B, Lecture 6

Midterm 1 Information

Time and Place

The first midterm is Friday, February 2, from 12 noon to 12:50pm.

It will not be held in our normal classroom, but rather in
MS 5200.

Don't forget!

Extra Help

I will have extra office hours Wednesday at 5pm (until 6pm or as late as 7pm if there's interest), and also Thursday 9-11am.

Jane will hold a review session Thursday evening, time and place to be determined.

Exam Format

There will be 6 questions, and the exam will be worth 100 points.  Different questions will be worth different points, and there could be multiple parts per question.  The problems will vary in difficulty, but the difficulty does not necessarily correspond to the point value.  The exam covers everything we've done so far up to section 8.7.  You are not required to know Simpson's Rule.

Advice

  1. Remember first of all that the point of this class is for you to learn the material.  The exam is a way for me to get an idea of how much you've learned, but more importantly it's a chance for you to review what we've covered so far and learn it more thoroughly.  Concentrate on things that were confusing the first time around and work on them until they are clear. Of course don't hesitate to ask Jane and myself if you have questions.  It's not possible for me to test you on everything we've covered, but my hope is that merely by reviewing the material you'll have learned it better whether you are tested on it or not.  Ideally you'll be over-prepared for the exam!
  2. Test questions will be similar to homework problems.  The best way to review the material is to review your homework problems, and to work similar problems (as I've mentioned doing many of the integrals in Section 8.5 is a great way to review).  Make sure you understand the concepts as well, so that you can solve different problems than just ones you've already seen.
  3. The test is fairly long, so you'll need to work quickly.  If you get stuck on a problem move on to another one.  If a calculation seems to be taking too long, think of doing it another way.  It helps to have worked a lot of problems beforehand so that you have a good idea of what techniques will work and don't need to blindly try different methods during the exam itself.
  4. On the test, show me what you know.  If you can't completely solve a problem at least show clearly what you tried, how much you understand, and how far you could get.  Don't write nonsense.  That is just a clear indication that you don't understand what you're doing.  It's better to know what you don't understand and be honest about it!
  5. There will be no proofs from the text on this midterm, but they might be required for the second midterm and final (I'll let you know well in advance if you need to learn a proof for a test).  For this exam you may be required to do simple proofs like in the homework exercises (essentially calculations justifying some formula).
  6. You must remember the trig identities, fundamental integration formulas, and so forth.  I would concentrate on just the most important ones and know how to derive as much from them as possible.  If you forget a formula I'll allow you to "buy" it during the exam for a certain number of points (I'll tell you how many and you can decide whether it's worth it or not!).  You need to tell me clearly what formula you need (for example "sin 2x"); you can't just ask for "the formula I need to solve this problem"!
  7. Solutions to homework 3 will be posted Wednesday evening, but you won't get the graded homework back until next week.  If you want to study from your own solutions, I recommend photocopying the ones from section 8.4 and 8.7 before you hand them in.

Good luck!