Final Exam Questions

[Robert Zellmer]

I'm getting questions about the final exam, what will be covered,
how to study for it, will there be practice exams, etc.

It is cumulative, meaning it covers the whole semester.  I'm not sure
of the exact coverage.  There are multiple versions of the exam and
I've only seen one version so far.  I will give more information about
the coverage next week.

There are 70 questions and you get 1 hr and 45 minutes.  That's 1.5
minutes per question.  That seems like way too little time but they are
mostly single concept questions.  Many can be answered in way less
than 1.5 minutes, particularly if you know the material pretty well.

I'm working on the "practice exams" link and will have more info there
soon.  There is (are) a study guide in the library (18th Ave) but it covers
a whole years worth of material so you have to keep that in mind.
In addition, I will put a link there to the ACS (American Chemical
Society) web page.  They have some general info there about their
exams.  They also have what are labelled "Chemistry Olympiad" exams,
both local and national.  They are full-year exams.  I will tell you which
problems you should be able to do and in what period of time so you can
time yourself for a few of the local ones.  The national exams are more
challenging and honestly you probably won't see a lot of questions like
these on the final.  Get through some of the others first before tackling
one of the national exams.

People have been asking how to study all this old material.  You certainly
don't have time to go back and do all the homework problems.  The best
way to do this is to print the old quizzes (maybe everyone of them from
each week), the practice exams and the midterms (I will post these after 
the
make-up midterms next Tuesday, as well as worked out solutions to these
as I did for the practice exams).  Retake these things.  Give yourself a
little less time (maybe about 5 min less on a quiz and 5-10 min less on an
exam) for each thing since you've already taken them and looked at the
solutions.  If you can still do them in the reduced time period and get 
correct
answers in a reasonable time period you should be okay.  While these things
may not have covered every little aspect of the course and homework they
do cover the majority of it.  If you have trouble with any of the 
problems on
these quizzes and past exams you should go to the book and read the
sections pertaining to what you're having problems with and try to redo
some of the homework problems from the book.

If you are at an impasse with understanding only a couple of concepts
I wouldn't worry too much.  There's not likely to be 5 questions over
any single given subject (maybe a couple).  Make sure you still can answer
the questions you could answer previously and then move on to those you
kind of remember but needed a little more practice.  Leave things you still
don't get at all until the end.  Hopefully there's not a lot of that so 
if you don't
get to a couple of things it won't be a big deal (you won't miss a lot 
of questions).

Honestly, for the one exam I saw I really feel if you understand what's been
covered and the problems you've seen in the homework, quizzes and midterms
you will be fine.  I didn't see a single question you shouldn't be able 
to answer.
We've covered all the material and many of the questions are very similar to
those you've seen (the types of questions are similar).

We will likely have some time next week on Wed., maybe even Monday, to start
reviewing some things.  Also, there will be a review the Monday before 
your final,
4-7 PM in 1000 MP.

I hope this answers questions you have about the final.  I'll get out 
another e-mail
tomorrow with more details and the links.

Dr. Zellmer