The Final Exam

The Final Exam will be at 9am on December 12. You should view the Final as half "Exam 3" and half comprehensive.
By "Exam 3", I mean the exam on the material of Weeks 10-13. This material, by student accounts, is notably more difficult
than the rest of the course. It is inevitable that "Exam 3" will likewise seem hard to a lot of you,
regardless of what questions are asked. Still, we aspire for some command of that material!

A good student asked me a few days ago if it were really true that half the final would be about the last four weeks of
the course. My first thought, as always: What was posted in the syllabus?!
Gee! the first four weeks of the course counted for that much, so why shouldn't the last four?
Calculus III (like Calculus II) is a course where the material reaches its climax at the end.
Maybe the last weeks should count even more? :)
Yes, I know that that homework for Week 13 has to be done in a slight hurry. ...

I ran into a student from the Fall 2002 course at the gym yesterday (Dec 3).
He told me that Calc III is the most important math course he took at Hopkins.
(I forgot to ask his major.)

As I've done on several occasions before, I looked at last year's final, and I still fail to see that it is demonically difficult.
Take a look for yourself: GO!
As I have written elsewhere (outside the course folder), if I were giving that exam again (which I'm not)
I would tone down #7 and #8 a little. Note that there were 15 extra points, making a perfect score 215/200.
The highest score in the class was 199.

To see answers and solution tips---after trying the exam---click here.

The Final will be given in Hodson Hall. [Details coming.]

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Steven Zucker