Sketches for TP uploaded in Canvas

A note is uploaded, I put it under "seminar" material because that is where all other solutions are.

It is sketchy; it was originally written as guidelines to the graders, and then I filled in some bits before I uploaded it. As the first couple of lines say, an exam paper should not look like this.

You are probably wondering how it relates to what you could expect on an exam, so let me give a few comments: 

  1. (a) Putting up a trap that invites you to taking logs of negative numbers is a bit nasty, and better suited for a "check before using l'H?pital!" heads-up problem than for an exam. But questions like the first - a limit where you get 0*0=0, just to see if people check that - have been given. 
    Also, both signs of a real constant: again, many papers make assumptions that are not in the problem. Read the problem!
    (b) AFAIK, a problem like this - with x-dependent base number - has not been given, but: you might have to rewrite logs for other purposes.
    (c) Could very well have been given on an exam as is. 
    (de) For an exam question, I would have considered whether this led to too much work on calculations that are "both ugly and insightless". But apart from that, it could very well have been assigned.
    Also, this is a problem type that IMHO should be in a term paper - many of you will have gotten the feedback that if given a point to test, then insert for it.
    (f) All the maths is very relevant, but see footnote about language.
  2. The compendium problems are old exam problems (possibly slightly reworked) - from when the exam was 6 hours. That explains why the full problem 28 could take so much time. As I mentioned, my predecessors could assign this for the first seminar, but I still do not think it is easy. In particular, it takes something to get part (f) completely right, and part (c) isn't outright easy either. (Neither is part (d), which is the reason it was left out!)
    Bottom line: The entire problem 28 is too much for an exam, and that means both "too much to do" and "too much tricky stuff to do" - but there is no "single" question you can slash away as off limits. 
  3. The easiest of the three problems, from what I heard from the graders, and I am not surprised - students tend to like linear algebra. Everything here is game for an exam, although I would think twice before writing a phrase like "top-right element". (Why did I write that? To force you to figure out for yourselves how many columns there were.)

Nils

Published Nov. 9, 2018 1:46 PM - Last modified Nov. 9, 2018 1:48 PM