Tests

Table of contents
There are three main sections here. You can jump to any of them directly by clicking on the desired link below, or you can browse through the entire document using the scroll bar.

  1. Purpose

  2. How to prepare

  3. Information specific to each test

Purpose

The tests in this course are designed to serve two main purposes:
  1. To encourage students to strive for complete and integrated understanding of the topics covered.

  2. To serve as a primary assessment mechanism.
I consider these two to be equally important objectives, and intentionally design tests in an effort to fulfill them. I would like to emphasize, in particular, the first item above, since it is frequently overlooked by students.

In practice what this means to you, the student, is that I strongly discourage reducing your test preparation to the bare minimum, based on guessing what is going to be on the test. Therefore, my focus in the rest of this discussion is on helping you prepare for the test and, at the same time, making sure that you perform well because you are proficient in the material.

How to prepare

As described above, my primary purpose when testing is to assess your understanding of all the key concepts covered and your ability to apply that understanding for solving problems of interest in this course. Here are the key steps that I suggest for your preparation strategy:

If I had to confine my advise to 1 sentence, it would be:
"Practice, practice, practice -- there's no substitute."

  1. Take (or, retake) all the previous tests, quizzes, and practice problems you can get hold of, including those from previous semesters posted here.

  2. Complete all the homework exercises and make sure you understand "the how" and "the why" of the solution process. It is also helpful to be creative here and change the numbers or terms or equations in the homework problems and see how that affects the solution process.

  3. Review and understand all the topics and examples covered in class.

  4. Review lab projects and exercises.

  5. Followup on the suggestions in the "Preparation pointers" posted here for each test, and in any review session held in class.

  6. Work through as many extra exercises as you can. The textbook has a review section at the end of each chapter with several additional exercises.

  7. Get help when you encounter trouble spots, and to strengthen any areas that feel weak or murky. I am happy to help!

The following are some general pointers on how I design test questions:

  • Questions generally cover most of the key topics that are included in the test syllabus. So, if you leave out any section or significant topic in your preparation, it is at your own risk.

  • To get ideas for test questions, I look at the concepts, illustrations & examples covered in class, the exercises assigned for homework, the projects/problems covered in lab, other exercises in the textbook, and similar problems from other sources.

  • I like questions that test multiple concepts simultaneously! With the short time we get for in-class tests, this is necessary for time-economy. The good news for you is that in this course, each section naturally builds upon & reinforces previous concepts. Thus, you get lots of practice with integrating and synthesizing multiple concepts, if you do your homework regularly.

  • Test questions generally require understanding the materials -- not merely the ability to reproduce solutions to problems you've seen before.

  • Test questions are generally not hard! However, they may sometimes seem that way since they look new. Most questions involve straightforward application of concepts and problem-solving skills covered in class and in the textbook.

  • I design tests with the expectation that you have literally worked out solutions to the homework problems, and developed a degree of proficiency with questions of that type. Students who have not done this (e.g., those who merely "look at" the HW problems) are unlikely to do well on the test.

 

Information specific to each test

IMPORTANT NOTE: The links below include copies of actual tests from previous semesters. My purpose in doing this is to give you a general feel for the type of questions that appear on tests. Working on these questions should give you useful practice, as well as a sense for the breadth and level of understanding required. However, it is very important to bear in mind that these tests are not intended to be templates or mimic the actual test that you will take. To be more specific:
  • Do not rely on the structure or format of the previous test to be indicative of your own test.
  • Do not assume that a topic which did not appear on the previous test must be unimportant and, therefore, won't appear on your test.
  • Since I have released the previous test here, I am very likely to change the emphasis and/or nature of at least some of the questions on your test.