Exam Rules:

bulletEach midterm is 50 minutes long, in quiz section.
bulletEach midterm counts for 21% of your grade. Midterm 2 covers the material from Worksheets 9-16.
bulletThe exam will consist of 3-5 problems on about 4 pages.
bulletYou are permitted to bring: one 8.5"x11" sheet of notes (two-sided is OK, handwritten preferred), a ruler, and a calculator. No other electronics are allowed (for instance, music players).
bulletPlease bring photo ID and be aware that your TA may spot-check some IDs.
bulletThere are no makeup exams. If a serious and unavoidable emergency occurs (such as illness) and you miss the midterm, you need to contact your professor as soon as possible and provide documentation.

To study for the midterm:

1)      REVIEW:  First, review all the basic concepts, formulas and methods we covered so far (use the posted Review File as a starting point, and look through your class notes and text). For each concept or method, make sure you can define it or describe it, and give examples. Recall in which homework problems or activities you had to apply it.
Also, don't forget to review any algebra skills you had trouble with during the quarter.

2)      UPDATE YOUR SHEET OF NOTES: As you work through (1) above, make sure your sheet of notes for the exam contains all the important formulas and methods. Your sheet should be clean, neat, and organized, so you can find things easily. Do not write too small, or make the sheet too busy/messy, or it will confuse you more than it will help. Remember that you'll have limited time during the test! In particular, writing down entire homework problems is counter-productive, since you won't get exactly the same problem anyway.

3)      PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE:  Once you're comfortable with the material and the homework problems, print out a few previous exams from the Exam Archive (under Exam 2), and attempt them in test-like conditions: 50 minutes, quiet location, with no help but your sheet of notes and calculator. When finished (or when the time's up), compare your work to the posted solutions, and see which parts you missed. Review again the parts you missed, or bring questions to office hrs or review sessions.

During the exam:

*         Start by looking over the test quickly to see how long it is and about how long you can spend on each problem.

*          Do first the problems that look easiest to you. Read each question very carefully before writing down anything, to make sure you are answering the correct question and you are not wasting time on something that was not asked.

*        Do not spend too much time on any one problem, and do not panic. If you get stuck, move on and come back later. If you studied regularly and well, you should be able to do the entire exam, but sometimes the pressure can make you unable to think straight. If you return to the same question later you may notice something you missed the first time.

*         Do not cheat. It is wrong, you will get a better grade on your own work anyway, plus it is very likely to get caught. There will be different versions of the exam, and we take cheating very seriously. The consequences for cheating are outlined in the university policy on academic misconduct.

*         Before handing in your exam, take a quick look and make sure you answered as much as possible every question. If you have time left, review your answers.

*         MOST IMPORTANTLY: unless otherwise stated, SHOW YOUR WORK and use the methods learned in this class!
On this exam, this means using a correct algebraic method. Plug-and-check (i.e. guessing and verifying), or reading values off your graphing calculator will get little credit if there was a step-by-step procedure to determine the answer. In particular:

   >   If we cannot tell how you got your answer you will not get much credit, even if your answer happens to be correct.
>   On the other hand, if you show work and your answer is wrong, you will get some partial credit for the steps that are correct in your solution.

GOOD LUCK!