Weeks 15 & 16
Last Class, Exam Prep, Course Evaluations, Exam

⦿ About the final exam 🙀

There is enough to learn in a course without having to guess at what will be on the final exam. My goal is for there to be no surprises when you see the exam. To that end this page shares what I can tell you about it.

Exam Information

Everything I can think of to tell you ahead of time about the exam:

Time and place

9 am–12 pm Monday April 15th in Rm A2601

What to bring

Your cheat sheet, calculator, pen/pencils, and, if you want, beverage and snack (both quiet, no slurping, no crunching 😅), non-phone music player and headphones.

The format of the exam.

180 minutes, 180 marks. Problems more like those on the Exercise sets than like the Assignments.

How the exam will be organized

Questions in the order we covered the material in the course (not by difficulty!).

Bits of advice about writing it

Questions don’t have to be done in order. #optimalforaging
Don’t waste time being stuck. Move on, and revisit the question later.
Assume I have the question in front of me, i.e. you don't have to repeat any information in it.
Don't waste time erasing mistakes, just draw a line through it, and keep going.
Keep careful track of which problems you have finished and which ones you have not.

What the exam instructions will be

All the examinable topics and their approximate weights on the exam

Sample exams. Yours will look just like these except with different specific questions (similar, but not identical, topics though!).

• 2014 Final Exam. This one was written in-person, like yours will be.
• 2020 Final Exam. This one was written online/at-home, so the instructions differ a bit from 2014's, and yours.

Sample Cheatsheets. Not sure what to put on your cheatsheet? Here are two from previous years. And one not from this course just because it is so pretty.

• You can use colour.
• Or go monochrome.
• Something to aspire to aesthetically (although it's not a cheatsheet for this course).