Why aren't the answers to sample exams published?
I do not publish the answers to sample exams. My reasons for doing this
are not to make your lives miserable, but rather to help you do better on the
actual exams. Here's my reasoning:
- Learning is hard work.
- Human beings, by nature, often try to avoid hard work.
- If the answers to the sample exams were published, you would be
tempted to check your answers before putting in enough effort to truly
understand the problems. You need to struggle with the problems on your
own to be able to understand what you do and do not know.
How should I use the sample exams?
First of all, understand that you will not be asked the same problems as
those that appear on the sample exam. The sample exam is provided to give you
an idea of the types of problems you may be asked. Here are my suggestions on
how to use the sample exams:
- Study for the exam. Start early - don't wait until the night before
the exam. Watch the videos (again). Go through your lecture notes.
Make sure you understand all of the homework problems. Look at the
daily lecture objectives and make sure you know everything the lecture
objectives say you should know. Try the sample exam problems that are provided with
the daily lecture objectives (these answers are not published, either, for the same
reasons as above). Get office hour help if you don't know how to do
the sample problems that are provided with the daily lecture objectives.
- Write up your one page of notes that you will be using on exam day.
- Take the sample exam. Set aside 50 minutes in a quiet place. Have your
page of notes with you. Take the exam. Stop after 50 minutes.
- Strategize. If you weren't able to complete the exam in the 50-minute
time frame, try to determine which problems or which kinds of problems took
you a long time. This might indicate that you need to study a certain topic
more, or that you need to include additional topics or examples on your
page of notes. If a particular problem had you stymied, take additional time now
to try to understand the problem.
- If you would like reassurance that your answers to the sample exam
problems are correct, and if you have followed the other steps outlined above,
you are welcome to come to TA/SA/instructor office hours and we will go over
your solutions with you.