Math 205
Study Guide for Test #1
Take-home test March 9-11

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For about 50-60% of the test, the quizzes and HWK should give you a reasonable indication of what kind of problems to expect. Realize that you wrote the HWK quite soon after beginning a particular topic, so some of the problems you did were to begin familiarizing yourself with the new concepts and techniques. Such problems are less likely to appear on a test, which you are writing after having worked with (most of) the material for a longer period of time and in more contexts.

Some of the test problems will be designed in part to test whether you can apply what you have learned to a somewhat new situation.

Some of the test questions may be short-answer questions.

Two good ways to prepare for the test (different, but complementary; both are advisable):

  1. Work lots of problems.
  2. Create an outline for each section, using your notes and the readings in the text and your HWK, and then shrink your outlines to a single one-page summary. Make sure you know what you've put on your summary.

If you want a list of topics covered, you can use the study guides for the quizzes. Many of the items listed there can almost be crossed off because you will be very familiar with them by now. Others may not have been used as much and may require more review and practice.

You can also use the quiz guides, along with the HWK assignments, to choose some basic practice problems.

To practice applying what you know to somewhat less familiar contexts, I suggest you choose problems from the following list. Don't attempt to complete all of these problems!

Questions?
Come to the problem sessions. Come to my office. Send me e-mail. Post on the FirstClass Q&A conference for the course. To ask about a particular problem from the text, please give page or section number, give problem number, and make your question as specific as you can.


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