Math 461 B/C Final Exam Information

Basic Information

Date/time: The final exam will be at the following times and locations:

Section C13/C14 (10 - 10:50 am): Monday, May 11, 8 am - 11 am, 1310 DCL. (Note the room is different from the regular classroom and from the room in which the other midterms were given. DCL is located at Springfield and Matthews.)
Section B13/B14 (9 - 9:50 am): Thursday, May 14, 8 am - 11 am, 347 Altgeld.

NOTE: The two final dates are not interchangeable. Unless you qualify for, and receive prior approval, for a conflict date under the "no three consecutive finals" rule as explained below, you must take the final at the date/time corresponding to the section in which you are officially registered. In particular, if you are registered for the 10 am section (C13/14), your final is on Monday, May 11.

Final Exam conflict policy

The University is very strict about enforcing final exam time slots. For example, a student can not take the final at a different time to accommodate travel plans. Except for the "no three consecutive finals" rule or in cases of emergencies (see below for more on this), a student cannot take the final at a different time without obtaining approval at the highest level - from the Associate Chair of the Mathematics Department all the way up to the Office of the Provost. Such approvals are granted only in exceptional situations.

Three consecutive finals. If you are in this situation, you are entitled to a conflict exam in one of the three classes involved, though not necessarily in ours because of University rules about prioritizing conflicts. The complete rules can be found in Article 3, Part 2 of the Student Code, but they essentially boil down to the following:

If one of the classes involved in the conflict has a scheduled conflict exam (ours does not), you should take that exam.
If one of the classes involved is giving the final exam at a time different from their designated final exam slot, that class has to accommodate any conflict requests.
If one of the finals involved is a "combined" final exam (ours is a "noncombined" exam), that class has to provide conflict exams.

If none of these cases applies, then, with prior approval, you may switch final exam dates (from May 11, 8-11, to May 14, 8-11, or vice versa). To get a switch approved, contact me by email (ajh@uiuc.edu) no later than Wednesday, May 6, providing your complete final schedule (classes/sections involved, final exam times, and any conflict exams offered).

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.)

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.

Final Exam content and syllabus

The Final will be about 2 - 2.5 times as long as a midterm and will account for around 300 additional points (on top of the 630 points earned so far). In terms of format and difficulty, the problems will be comparable to those on the midterm exams, though some of the calculations might be slightly more involved since time pressure is not a factor in the final.

The Final will have 10 - 12 problems, generally with several parts. There may be one or two (sub)problems of a conceptual nature, e.g., questions asking to state a formula, definition, property, or theorem. I might also include an extracredit problem.

The Final Exam will be cumulative and cover the material of Midterm Exams 1 - 3, each given approximately equal weight, as well as the following material from Chapter 8; see the Central Limit Theorem Handout for a summary of the relevant formulas.

Probabilistic inequalities (Markov, Chebychev), Weak Law of Large Numbers (8.2)
Central Limit Theorem and normal approximation (8.3)

For syllabi for the midterm exam materials, and links to past exams and past finals, see the Exam Information pages for these exams:

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