Information for Math Xa Final Exam, January 2003
The final exam in Math Xa will be held on Monday
January 13.
The exam will start at 9:15am and end at
12:15pm.
The location of the final exam is Science Center Lecture
Hall D.
Review Sessions
There will be two course-wide review sessions. These will be
at:
- Friday January 10 from
4-6pm in Science Center Lecture Hall E.
- Sunday January 12 from
3-5pm in Science Center Lecture Hall A.
These review sessions will both be conducted by Dale Winter.
If other teaching fellows schedule review sessions, this
information will be posted here as soon as it comes to hand.
Office Hours During the Reading Period
- Monday January 6
- 10am-noon and 1pm-3:30pm in SC 430 (Dale
Winter)
- 3pm-4pm in SC 333f (Eddie Lee)
- 8pm-10pm in Loker Commons (David
Jao)
- 9pm-10pm in Loker Commons (Justin
Draft)
- Tuesday January 7
- 10am-noon and 1pm-5pm in SC 430 (Dale
Winter)
- 3pm-4pm in SC 333f (Eddie Lee)
- 4pm-5pm in SC 324d (Namhoon Kim)
- Wednesday January 8
- 10am-noon and 1pm-5pm in SC 430 (Dale
Winter)
- 3pm-4pm in SC 333f (Eddie Lee)
- 4pm-5pm in SC 324d (Namhoon Kim)
- Thursday January 9
- 10am-noon and 1pm-5pm in SC 430 (Dale
Winter)
- 3pm-4pm in SC 333f (Eddie Lee)
- 4pm-5pm in SC 426 (David Jao)
- 4pm-5pm in SC 324d (Namhoon Kim)
- 9pm-10pm in Loker Commons (Justin Draft)
- Friday January 10
- 10am-noon and 1pm-3:30pm in SC 430 (Dale
Winter)
- 3pm-4pm in SC 333f (Eddie Lee)
- Saturday January 11
- 4pm-5pm in SC 324d (Namhoon Kim)
- Sunday January 12
- 6pm-10pm in Loker Commons (Dale
Winter)
Any Math Xa student (from any section) is welcome at any of
the office hours listed above. You are also welcome to
make a special appointment to meet with the teaching fellow
who led your section if none of the times given above are
convenient for you. If you'd like to meet with your teaching
fellow, please contact him directly.
Allowed Items for the Final Exam
You are allowed to use your calculator on the exam, and may
bring one standard size (8.5 by 11 inch) sheet of notes into
the exam with you. (Yes, you are allowed to use both sides.)
Note that you are only allowed one sheet of notes for
the final exam, so make sure that you really condense and
summarize the knowledge that you have gained to make your
notes really count.
Format of the Exam
The style and format of the final exam will closely resemble
the style and format of the two midterm exams that you took
in Math Xa.
The final exam will be comprehensive in the sense that it
will feature problems dealing with material that you have
studied throughout the entire course.
The test will include twelve problems, each with
multiple parts. Like the problems on the midterms, the
problems will be very reflective of what we have emphasized
in the course - the idea of this test is to see what you have
learned (or already knew). We will not be putting anything
on the test that is completely foreign, although you should
not expect all of the problems on the test to closely
resemble calculations that you have already done. You will
have to explain your reasoning in words, so be ready to do
that.
The bottom line is that, as was the case with the midterms,
we are not going to pull any "dirty tricks" on the exam. As
long as you have been going to class, working out all of the
parts of the labs, doing a thorough and conscientious job on
the homework, make a decent effort to review your class
notes, and complete as many review problems as you have time
for then you will be well prepared for the test.
Finally, remember when you are deciding what sort of function
would do a good job of representing the trend in a set of
data, use the shape of the STATPLOT of the data as your main
guide. Only use the correlation coefficient (r or r^2) as a
tie-breaker if several types of function would each do a
reasonable job.
The specific topics that will be tested on the final exam
include:
- The definition of a function
- Representations of functions (graphs, tables,
equations, written descriptions
- Interpreting graphs, tables, words and
equations
- Modeling relationships using simple functions
(linear, exponential and power functions)
- Interpreting the parameters of linear and
exponential functions
- Calculating and interpreting rates of change
- Solving exponential equations using
logarithms
- Rates of change and concavity
- Approximating functions that are defined by a
rate of change (Euler's method)
- Transformations of functions
- Recognizing the shapes of simple functions
- Recognizing the shapes of polynomial
functions
- Finding equations for polynomial functions
- Compositions of functions
- The concept of the inverse of a function
- Completing the square and quadratic
functions
- Functions defined in pieces
- Left and right hand limits
- Calculating limits for functions defined by
equations and graphs
- Limits involving infinity and asymptotes
(horizontal and vertical)
- Rational functions
- Sketching the graph of a derivative
- Calculating the equation for a derivative using
the limit definition (difference quotient)
- Interpretation of the derivative as the slope of
a tangent line and average rate of change as the
slope of a secant line
- Practical interpretation of the derivative
- Calculating derivatives using short-cut rules:
- Product rule
- Quotient rule
- Chain rule
- Power rule
- Rules for derivatives of exponential and
logarithmic functions
- Constant multiple rule
- Derivative of an isolated constant is
zero
- Locating the local maximum and local minimum
values of a function
- Classifying critical points using the first and
second derivatives
- Locating the global maximum and global minimum
values of a function
- Optimization (i.e. word problems that involve
maximums or minimums)
- The second derivative and inflection points
- Related rates
- Implicit differentiation
- Euler's method (estimating the values of a
function using the rate of change of the function and
a table
- Slope fields
Practice Problems for the Final
Sets of review problems (and solutions) will be posted here
over the next few days. Check back when you finish one
problem set, and there will probably be a new one waiting for
you.