Q. For the final exam, we are allowed to bring a cheat sheet which is 8.5*11
size paper. I dont know how big it is. Is this a A4 paper?

A. "8 1/2 inches by 11 inches"  is the size of paper that the exams are on.
A4 paper is the metric equivalent and is close enough.

Q. Will the exam cover sections 9.1 and 9.2?

A. No.

Q. I am just writing this email to make sure that the final will be cumulative
and will cover chapters 1-7.5. Are these the chapters we will be responsible
for? On the homework sheet it states that we should know a few sections from
chapter 9, I asked my TA if this is the case but she told me to ask you just to
be sure.

A. We are skipping chapter 9 - I am reviewing chapters 1-7 in lecture. The
final has not yet been written. It will be cumulative with approximately 6 or 7
problems from new material (6.4-7.5) and 7 or 8 from old material.

Q. Is the difficulty level of the final going to be equivalent to that
of the first two exams? I'm wondering this because we get to use a sheet
of notes.

A. Same.

Q. Just wondering if any chapters are going to more heavily
concentrated on compared to others since it is a cumulative test?

A. Nope.

Q. will there be multiple choice questions on the final like there were
in exam 2?

A. Nope but there might be one fill-in the blank problem.


Q. Would it be possible for you to create a new curve, post exam 2 so that we
can know vaguely where we stand going into the final exam?

A. The curve for the two exams is just the sum of the two curves:
 exam 1 + exam 2  curve
grade   cutoff
  a   180 - 200
 ab   174 - 179
  b   157 - 173
 bc   152 - 156
  c   132 - 151
  d   108 - 131
  f     0 - 107
The final exam will also be curved and the cutoffs on the 350
points will just be the sum of the cutoffs.

Q. I saw in the syllabus that the final exam is cumulative.  I was
wondering if there would be more questions on the material covered
after the second exam or if all material would be represented
equally on the final.

A. Probably about 50% new material (post exam 2).

Q. I am aware that 90% of our final grade is attributed to our
performance on exams. In that case I am curious if our final grade is
based on each individuals awarded points divided by the point total or
if there is a curve on our final grade?

A. The final will be 150 points.  I will curve it.  For example, the
lowest A on the final might be 135 points which is 90% (or lower if I
decide that the exam was too hard but never higher than 90% even if the
exam is too easy).  The three exams add up to 350 points.  The curve on
the 350 points is just the sum of the three curves.  After that grade
has been determined, each TA gets to raise the grade point average of
their sections by .10.