About the final exam
The exam will be cumulative, and cover all of the syllabus but there
will be somewhat more emphasis on the material covered since the
second exam (that is, the vector calculus material). The exam
will be given on Thursday, May 6, from 8 to 11 AM, in Hill
114. Please note the time (early!) and location (different from
our usual classroom to allow students more room).
In Math 251, the final exam is written by the lecturer for the sections, so your final exam will be written by your lecturer, and the "style" should be familiar. The pace of a three-hour final exam will be quite different from the two exams you've already had in this course. The final exam likely will be less than twice as long as one of the exams already given. Here are some general comments about preparing for the exam.
What to study, part 1
Please assume that any question previously asked on an exam
concerns material important enough to be examined again. Careful
students should know answers to those exam questions which didn't earn
full credit in earlier exams. This is a very serious recommendation.
Therefore you should take your graded earlier exams and look at the
answers to the first exam and to the second exam. This process may
feel awkward, but be certain you can answer the questions
now. Please do this!
What to study, part 2
Here are some relevant previous exams and review material that I've
given in this course, going backwards in time (most recent is first).
Studying with other students may be very helpful.
Review sessions, office hours, etc.
The lecturer will have a review session on Tuesday, May 4, in Hill
525, from 10 to 11:30 AM. I intend to spend the first hour doing
problems related to the Divergence Theorem, to make up for the fact
that there was no recitation after the Thursday lecture when that
result was introduced.
The recitation instructor will have a review session on Wednesday, May 5, in Hill 525, from 6:30 to 8 PM.
Old problems in relation to our syllabus
Here is a list of problems from those old exams "keyed" to each
section of the syllabus covered since the second exam. This may
be useful to you but note that only the "vector calculus" problems are
listed below. Since the final exam is cumulative, you should be sure
to review important earlier material.
My design criteria for calculus exams
I try to ask questions about most (hopefully all) important topics
which were covered in the period to be tested. I try to avoid asking
problems which require special "finicky" tricks, and do try to inquire
about techniques which are broadly applicable.
I want to give, on any calculus exam, questions which require reading and writing graphical information, reading and writing symbolic information, reading and writing quantitative information ("numbers"), and, finally, some question(s) requiring students to exhibit some reasoning and explanation, appropriate to the level of the course and also recognizing the limited time of an exam. I certainly don't always "hit" this target but that's my aim.
Maintained by greenfie@math.rutgers.edu and last modified 4/26/2010.