IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT THE EXAM THIS COMING FRIDAY OCT. 5, 2007:

TIME: 9:00 AM PLACE DRL A1 (NOTE: NOT IN OUR USUAL ROOM, NEXT DOOR)

1) Please arrive no later than 8:50AM. Reason: There will be precise seating arrangements to spread you out in the room, these will take some time to get into place this first exam. I want to start the exam on time (9 AM), we need the time to get set--you want all the time you need for the actual exam.

2) The exam is all multiple choice--in each problem, circle the WHOLE PHRASE that you deem correct, NOT just its letter or a little piece of it.

3) VERY IMPORTANT: THERE IS A PENALTY FOR GUESSING THAT GOES LIKE THIS: For each answer you circle that is wrong I deduct 2 points from all you've achieved, but if you leave it blank (i.e., don't guess) you lose no points (but don't gain any either) for that problem. Example: You answer eight of ten questions correctly but write two answers incorrectly. Your score is then 76 (= 80 - 4 points (penalty)). Whereas if you answered eight right but left two blank because you didn't know the answers for these then you'd get 80 (no penalty). This penalty is put in to prevent random guessing on an exam where the answers are multiple choice. Consider an example: The exam consists of ten questions, each question has five suggested answers; you must pick one of these five for each question. The probability of guessing correctly in each question is 1/5, so a random answerer would get 1/5 x 100 for a score, i.e., 20. But, with the penalty, the wrong answers (eight of them) would give a penalty of 2 points each, that is a 16 point penalty in all and the score for random guessing in this case would be 4 points not 20. So you see it doesn't pay to guess; therefore, DON'T GUESS--WHEN IN REAL DOUBT LEAVE IT BLANK.

4) The exam will cover all material from lectures and HW up to and including the lecture of Monday October 1, 2007.

5) Remember the Sunday review this Sunday evening--use it, it's there for you. Review your HW's, make sure you can compute and make sure you UNDERSTAND what we covered.

ADDENDUM

This is about the END of the exam. You know that other classes will need our room and we cannot overstay our welcome in any room of the University. So, this is how I end an exam:

At 9:58 AM I will announce that the exam is over and then I will say, "IN EXACTLY TWO MINUTES BY MY WATCH, I WILL LEAVE THE ROOM. IF YOUR EXAM IS NOT IN MY POSSESSION AT THAT TIME, YOU HAVE NOT TAKEN THIS EXAM." Now two minutes is a long time and I'll remind you that 1 minute is gone then that there are 30 seconds left, etc. YOU are responsible for getting your exam to the front, for placing it FACE DOWN on the correct pile (we collect by sections, there will be four piles), for doing this ON TIME. Please don't think that this is nonsense, last year two students learned the hard way that I mean what I say--I refused to accept their late exams and those were the exams they had to have dropped.

Secondly, when you exit the room after the exam, DO SO SILENTLY in courtesy to your fellow students taking the exam. Also, I answer no questions that day after the exam, don't ask any. I will grade your exams as quickly as I can--don't bug me about that either. You will get from me the statistics of the exam when I'm finished grading; they will come as e-mail. Your personal grade will be posted privately by Mr. Mendes, he will do this electronically. You may see your exam ONLY IN MR. MENDES' OFFICE AND ONLY WHEN HE IS PRESENT. EXAMS NEVER LEAVE HIS OFFICE.

Good luck on this and other exams, please make sure you can compute quickly and accurately and that you understand the material--try lots of problems on the math 240 web page (under undergrad programs) by clicking on sample final exams.