Math 241 F1H

Final Exam Information

General Information

• Date/time/location: The final will be Saturday, 12/15/2007, 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm, in the usual room, 142 Henry. The exam falls on the last day of the final exams period, and it forces all of us to stay longer on campus than we might wish, but I had no choice in this matter. The above slot is the official final exam slot for classes meeting at 2 pm. Instructors are required to give the final at the assigned slot and students have to take the exam at that time. Only in very exceptional cases are students permitted to take the final at a different time. Such exceptions cannot be granted by the instructor, but need to be requested and approved at higher levels, from the Associate Chair of the Mathematics Department all the way up to the Office of the Provost.
• Exam rules: The same as for the midterms. No calculators, closed books/notes, no formula sheets, and no cheating.
• Missed final, illness, and other emergencies: By University policy, a missed final exam automatically translates into a failing grade unless the student has been granted an "excused/incomplete" grade by the Dean, in which case the student is entitled to take a make-up final by the middle of the following semester. If you miss the final because of an illness or other emergency do the following as soon as possible (preferably before the time of the final):
  • Call the Emergency Dean (333-0050) and explain your situation. This is the most important step. The Emergency Dean can initiate further action or refer you to the appropriate Dean to get the excused/incomplete grade approval process started. (Only Deans have the authority to grant excused/incomplete grades - the instructor cannot assign such grades.)
  • If you are sick, make sure to see a doctor or nurse as you will likely need some documentation proving that you really have been sick.
  • Notify me by phone (244-7721) or email (ajh@uiuc.edu). (This is just a matter of courtesy so that I know what is going on. You still need to go through the Dean to get an excused grade and make-up final approved.)
  At this time of the year, with the cold/flu season in full swing, it is not unusual that some students get ill during the final exam period. If you do get sick, my advice is to err on the side of caution: Rather than risking your course grade, your own health, and that of your fellow students, by forcing yourself to take the final while sick, call the Emergency Dean to get the excused/incomplete grade process started as explained above. Keep in mind that, if you do take the final, then whatever score you earned there will stand. You cannot retroactively argue that your final exam score should be discounted because you have not been feeling well. Thus, if you are sick enough that you feel your performance on the final will be affected, it is better to play it safe and seek an excused grade.
• Office hours during Finals week. The last class hour (Thursday, December 6) will be an Open House type session, at the regular classroom (142 Henry). In addition, I will hold special office hours during the Finals week for last-minute questions, in my office, 241 Illini Hall. Below is a tentative schedule. I picked the 12 pm - 1 pm slot because it falls between final exam periods and so is unlikely to conflict with other finals you might have. If there is interest, I could schedule different or additional slots.)
  • Tuesday, 12/11: 12 pm - 1 pm
  • Thursday, 12/13: 12 pm - 1 pm
  • Friday, 12/14: 12 pm - 1 pm
• Grading of Final Exam. I expect to have the Final graded, and scores online, by the end of Sunday, 12/16. Scores on the Final, and course grades, can be accessed in the usual manner. I'll post an announcement on the course website once the scores are up, along with exam solutions, statistics, and grading information. If you want to see your final exam, you can do so Monday, 12/17, 12 pm - 1 pm,, in my office, 241 IH, or at the beginning of the spring semester.
• Course grade: Course grades will be based strictly on the accumulated points total (rescaled in case there are excused scores) after the final exam scores have been added in, and are nonnegotiable. This is the only fair and equitable way to assign grades; in particular, I cannot grant requests to "bump up" a grade for subjective reasons such as having a good attendance record or having worked hard, or discount an exam because the student had a bad day. To avoid hardships and close calls, I try to place the dividing lines between letter grades at gaps in the score distribution. With a small class like this one there will likely be enough large gaps in which to place grade cut-offs so that no student will end up only a few points away from the next higher (or next lower) grade.

Final Exam Content

Syllabi of the midterms, and links to practice exams corresponding to the midterm materials, can be found on the review sheets for those exams: Exam 1 Review Sheet, Exam 2 Review Sheet, Exam 3 Review Sheet.

As for the material covered after the third midterm, you should know the following concepts and definitions in the context of functions from Rn to Rm: Limit (epsilon-delta definition), continuity, differentiability, derivative Df(a), Taylor's formula, chain rule. (See the two class handouts on this material.) You should also be able to apply these definitions in some simple special cases (such as those covered in the class examples). (I don't have past exams on these topics since I have never taught a course that covered this material.)

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