w11d1

Monday, October 29, 2001

Announcements

I will be out of town at a conference Thursday, Nov. 1 through Tuesday, Nov. 6

Class will still be held Friday and Monday unless you hear otherwise.
I should have email access, but I cannot guarantee this.

A sample Lab Exam is available on the labs website
Web Project links should be sent to me within the next week.
Don't miss class on Wednesday - your instructor will be standing tall for Halloween!

Analysis of Exam 2 - Multiple-choice section

Mean = 60%
Std. Dev. = 14%
High score = 24/25 = 96% (Great!)
Low score = 7/25 = 28% (equivalent to random guessing)
Version 102 will be re-scored since the answer key had 2 errors
This exam will most likely be graded out of 95 instead of 100 points.
Remember that this exam only counts for 10% of your course grade, and if your exam scores improve, your final score will include an "improvement factor" that can make the difference between borderline letter grades. Students last year scored higher on Exam 3 and the Final, and there is plenty of room for improvement!

I spent about 20 hours preparing this exam (selecting and editing questions, error checking, etc.) and another 5 hours analyzing the results. All 25 test questions should have been familiar:

7 questions were from last year's exam - generally better performance on these
4 of the 15 conceptual questions are from the textbook
4 of the 10 numerical questions are from the assigned homework
7 of the 10 numerical questions were analyzed in class
6 questions were based on class demonstrations
Essentially all of the questions were reviewed in class last Monday

At least a dozen students finished before the end of the hour, and everyone should have been able to correctly answer the conceptual questions and at least half of the numerical problems, which would have resulted in a score of 20/25 = 80%. With no surprises, the average should have been much higher, so what happened?

Did you feel that this was a fair exam? If not, why?
How did you prepare for this exam?
Are you satisfied with your performance on this exam? If not, how do you plan to modify the way you study for this course?
What do you like best about this course?
What suggestions do you have for your instructor?

Suggestions for improving your understanding of physics:

Make sure you understand the fundamentals: notation, terminology, concepts, equations
When you solve problems, focus on the process, not just the answer.
Review example problems in the textbook by asking yourself how you would approach the problem and check to see if your approach agrees with the author's. If not, try to work the entire problem on your own and then check your solution.
Review class notes, homework problems, old exams
Study the Conceptual Questions at the end of each chapter.
Practice additional problems from the Study Guide, publisher's website, or other textbooks
Work with other students (in your assigned group or others)
Get help from the Tutorial Center in Phillips 210
Hire a private tutor (a list of physics tutors is available in Phillips 278)
Meet with your instructor - that's what office hours are for!