15-344/Term Test
The information below is preliminary and cannot be trusted! (v)
Our term test will take place at class time, on Tuesday October 27, starting at 3:10PM and ending at 5PM, in two separate locations: at MP 202 if your last name begins with A through R, and at Bahen 1190 if it begins with S through Z. No material other than stationary will be allowed; calculators will be forbidden and anyway useless.
The material for the term test is everything done in class or in tutorials, including the false proof of the 4CT. There will be no sample exam. Most likely there will be some choice: "choose 4 out of 5", or "8 out of 10 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. All the assignments submitted to far will be available for pick up on the tutorials on Thursday October 22.
Pre-exam time table.
- Thursday October 22, 11:30-12:30: Dror's office hours, Bahen 6178.
- Thursday October 22, 2-3: normal class.
- Thursday October 22, 4-5: tutorial session I, at LM 158.
- Thursday October 22, 4:30-6 unrelated, but perhaps interesting: The 17 Tiling Patterns: Gotta Catch 'Em All!, at MS 2173.
- Thursday October 22, 5-6: tutorial session II, at LM 158.
- Sunday October 25, 3-5: TA office hours, probably at the Math Aid Centre, SS 1071.
- Monday October 26, 2:30-5:30: TA office hours, 215 Huron room 1012.
- Tuesday October 27, 10:30-12:30: Dror's office hours, Bahen 6178.
- Tuesday October 27, 3-5: the exam itself, in two separate locations: at MP 202 if your last name begins with A through R, and at Bahen 1190 if it begins with S 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!
