Frequently Asked Questions
Over the years that I have been teaching, these questions have come up many times. I hope you will find some of this advice useful. Just like with medical diagnoses over the internet, you should still consult a live person (eg your advisor, or myself!) if you feel the advice does not match your situation. I'll be more than happy to schedule an appointment if you give me a day's notice. Also, please see my online schedule for regular office hours.
How should I study or prepare for the exam?
I can show you what topics will be covered, what questions typically look like, and demonstrate strategies for solving them, all the way down to little time-saving tricks. But you have to make your own decisions now - which topics do you feel sure about? which ones not so much? It's a good idea to look at the table of contents of the book, and/or your notes. Make a list of topics and mark them with their priority for you personally.
In what way should you study the topics that you picked? It depends how you feel about them.
- Reasonably sure --> do a sample problem or two from the exercises in that section.
- Not quite sure --> look at worked examples from the book, or relevant quiz or exam problems with my solutions, or homework problems. Go over it line by line until you feel reasonably sure. Then back to the first bullet point.
- Totally lost?? first, find out where in the textbook that is. Read the entire section up to that point. If you're still stuck, you need to see me and/or email ASAP. Same if you have any burning questions even when you feel you understand a topic.
Again, these are decisions that you need to make for yourself.
One last word: make sure to get enough rest the night before!
What kind of calculator would you recommend?
Short answer:
Get yourself to the bookstore, see what they have and get the cheapest one that does graphing.
Long answer:
I have a TI-84 Silver Edition, and I know it can plot functions (even several functions at once), zoom in and out, solve equations numerically. I've just seen an old recommendation that even a TI-83 or similar is good enough. You should see the capability to plot functions advertised in pretty big letters on the package, whenever a calculator can do it. If not, then it probably cannot do it - we recommend a graphing calculator because this is one of the features that is most useful if you know what to look for.
You don't need to have the more expensive calculators such as the Inspire which can do symbolic computations.
Personally, I don't like investing money in calculators at all, because in later life, you'll be sitting at a computer whenever you do math, and whenever you have an internet connection, you can use free resources such as SAGE (http://www.sagemath.org, click on "SAGE Online"). Or you invest serious money and buy one of the Big Three commercial Math software packages (MAPLE, Mathematica, or MATLAB). These packages are capable of doing everything the most expensive calculators can do, only much more and much better.
The calculators are what you get during some exams in some classes, though, and not computers with internet, so there we are.
Are formula sheets allowed on the exam?
The Math Department does not usually allow formula sheets unless explicitly stated.
The policy depends on the class, and the particular test/exam.
This is because we feel that eg memorizing rules of differentiation is similar to memorizing times tables in grade school. It's not by itself so terribly important, and you can easily get 4x5 from a calculator (or look up eg the Rules of Differentiation in a book, or on the Internet). But if you HAVE to use a calculator for that, you are much more likely to make lots of "silly" mistakes - perhaps even when entering 3x6 into the calculator by mistake instead of 4x5. And you cannot focus really well on algebra and calculus when you already have trouble with arithmetic. Of course, nobody in 3rd grade sees it that way. Now transfer the lesson to Rules of Differentiation! Math does not end there - the hard stuff comes afterwards. An example would be "SHOULD we trust this particular model for bone density, and if so, how far should we trust it? If not, can we find a better model?". You just cannot afford to worry about the Product Rule when you are dealing with eg such a question about model validity.
I hate this class! When can you sign my drop slip?
Any office hour is fine. Usually, you can get a hold of me after any class, in the classroom (you do not have to sit through the class). Just do not ask me to sign a drop slip right before class. I need the 5 - 10 minutes before class to set up, concentrate, go once more through my lesson plan - so please understand that I cannot have any distractions during that time.
Finally, if the last day to drop - deadline is there, our Main Office (Carver 396) will also sign drop slips for you.
I loved this class! Can you write a letter of recommendation for me?
Sure! I suppose you did well in that class? It helps if you email me with the semester you took that class. Make sure to tell me the exact name of the institution/program you are applying to. Also, please provide a website of the institution/program.
Give me all the details that might be relevant! Then I can write a better letter for you.
Do you want the turned in homework on engineering paper or scratch paper?
I like lined paper, engineering or otherwise, because then your lines are actually straight.
I don't have a policy - any scratch paper is ok, too. Obviously, you don't get points for things that I can't read.
But since you ask, it makes a big difference if your work looks neat.
Probably you benefit even while writing it because it is easier to keep track of what you are doing, fill in possible gaps etc.
So leave a nice big margin for grader's comments, make paragraphs and don't skimp on space no matter what kind of paper you are using.