(Last modified Thu Apr 24 10:24 2008)
hw 5 —
A look back and a look forward
The ten most important things, and why
List the ten most important things we covered in this class,
and briefly justify why you believe they are important.
(There are no wrong answers for this,
but there can be unconvincing justifications
that would not receive full credit).
Final exam questions, and answers
Give three (3) potential final exam questions,
and a good answer for each one.
For each question, explain why it would be a good exam question.
Keep in mind that a good question has these qualities:
- It should be related to material discussed in class.
- It should be simple to decide whether an answer to the question
is right or wrong,
or if it is a question for which an answer could be partially correct,
it should be relatively easy to decide how correct an answer is.
- It should be answerable in an appropriate amount of time.
As a rough guide, a well-prepared student should be able to answer
an average question in ten minutes or less;
an exam might contain at most two questions that would take fifteen minutes,
or one question taking twenty minutes.
- It should be answerable in an appropriate amount of paper.
As a rough guide, each answer should take roughly from one line to half a page.
Up to a full page is acceptable if the answer contains a diagram.
- It should give a well-prepared student the opportunity to display
his or her knowledge and ability.
Because an exam should contain a mixture of short and long questions,
please make your first question one that can be answered in a sentence,
and your second and third questions ones that can be answered in
a quarter to a half page (handwritten).
