15-344/The Final Exam
The information below is preliminary and cannot be trusted! (v)
Our final exam will take place on Thursday December 17 from 2PM until 5PM, in two separate locations: at BR 200 if your last name begins with A through Ri, and at EM 119 if it begins with Ro through Z. No material other than stationary will be allowed; in particular, calculators are forbidden.
- BR 200 is Room 200, Brennan Hall, St. Michael's College, 81 St. Mary Street.
- EM 119 is Room 119, Emmanuel College, 75 Queen's Park.
The material for the term test is everything done in class or in tutorials, with a division of about 25% for graph theory and 75% for enumeration. There will be no sample exam. Most likely there will be some choice: "choose 6 out of 8", or "9 out of 12 smaller questions", or something similar. The questions will come from four sources: class material (usually, "repeat something done in class"), questions discussed at the tutorials, questions assigned as homework (for submission or not), and questions from the book that were not assigned or discussed but are similar to questions assigned or discussed.
How to prepare? We each have our own ways. My own (and it worked quite well) was concentrate on totally knowing all the material, and not so much on doing exercises. So before an exam I'd make a list of "class material divided into (say) 100 points", and then I'd go over that list again and again crossing out those points which I was confident I fully understood, until there was nothing left. Yet given my declared intent that some term test questions will coming directly from the homework assignments, you'd probably be wise to go over these too.
Pre-exam time table. Please note that the information below is subject to last minute changes. If you are unsure, it is always better to chack the website once again.
- Tuesday December 8, 10:30-11:30: Dror's office hours, Bahen 6178.
- Tuesday December 8, 3-5: Last class for the semester, MP 202.
- Thursday December 10, 3:30-5:30: TA office hours, 215 Huron room 1012. (HW10 can be submitted, HW 1-9 available for pick up).
- Thursday December 10 at 5PM through Friday December 11 at 5PM: HW10 can be submitted to a drop box near Dror's office, Bahen 6178.
- Friday December 11, 4-5: TA office hours, 215 Huron room 1012. (HW10 due, HW 1-9 available for pick up).
- Monday December 14, 1-5: TA office hours, 215 Huron room 1012. (HW 1-10 available for pick up).
- Tuesday December 15, 2-5: Dror's office hours, Bahen 6178.
- Wednesday December 16, 2-5: Dror's office hours, Bahen 6178.
- Thursday December 17, 2-5: The exam itself, in two separate locations: at BR 200 for last names A through Ri, and at EM 119 for Ro through Z.
Remember. Neatness counts! Organization counts! Language counts! Proofs are best given as short and readable essays; without the English between the formulas one never knows how to interpret those formulas. When you write, say, "", does it mean "choose ", or "we've just proven that ", or "assume by contradiction that ", or "for every " or "there exists "? If you don't say, your reader has no way of knowing. Also remember that long and roundabout solutions of simple problems, full of detours and irrelevant facts, are often an indication that their author didn't quite get the point, even if they are entirely correct. Avoid those!
