Ting Kei Pong
tkpong at math dot washington dot edu
sections AA, AB
Wenhan Wang
wangwh at math dot washington dot edu
sections AC, AD
Ilker Kocyigit
ilker at math dot washington dot edu
sections BA, BB
Min Wu
wumin at math dot washington dot edu
sections BC, BD
Midterm 1:
Thursday, January 28
Midterm 2:
Thursday, February 25
Final Exam:
Saturday, March 13, 1:30-4:20 PM
Location: Kane 130
Grades are now up on the Catalyst gradebook. You are welcome to stop by during any of my office hours next quarter to see your final exam.
Have a good break!
Final exam stats: n=281; min=0; 1st quartile=29; median=45; 3rd quartile=57; max=70 (one person).
I will be holding an office hour on Friday, 1-2 PM, if you would like to see your graded final exam then. You may also stop by any of my office hours during Spring quarter to see your final.
Grading of the final exams has commenced. I hope we'll be done by Thursday, and I should be holding an office hour on Friday when you can stop by and see your final exam. I'll announce the time later this week when I know for sure that the grading will be done by then.
Some folks have been asking me, so I wanted to let everyone know that I will be teaching 124C (11:30 section) next quarter.
Here is a review/course summary to help you prepare for the final exam.
You now have access to your scores in the Catalyst Gradebook for this course. This is available via your MyUW. Please check that your scores have been recorded correctly. If you find an error, please bring your graded work to your TA so they can verify the error and make any necessary changes. The gradebook also has a Course Grade. This is an estimated course grade, since it does not include the final exam or the last homework assignment. Your lowest homework score was dropped during the calculation of your estimated course grade, but it still appears in the gradebook as a matter of record. An estimated course grade of 0 indicates that your performance was not of sufficient quality to qualify you for a grade of 0.7 or higher.
Statistics for the second midterm exam: n=283; min=0; 1st quartile=23; median=27; 3rd quartile=32; max=40 (7 people).
Answers to the second midterm are now available on the test archive at the 120 Materials Website (link at right).
CLUE will be holding a review session for Math 120 this Monday, February 22 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in MGH 254.
Here is an applet illustrating the graphs of linear-to-linear rational functions.
Here is a review sheet for the second midterm exam.
Exams in the exam archive are not wholly useful for studying for the upcoming midterm exam due to the significant changes in the course content this year. Here are problems in the exam archive that are worth looking at.
Autumn 2009 MT2 the whole thing
Spring 2009 MT2 problem 1
Spring 2009 MT1 problems 3 and 4
Winter 2009 MT1 problem 2
Winter 2009 MT2 problems 1 and 2
Autumn 2008 MT2 problems 1 and 2
Spring 2008 MT1 problem 3
Spring 2008 MT2 problem 1
Winter 2008 MT1 problems 1 and 4
Winter 2008 MT2 problem 2
Autumn 2007 MT1 problem 4
Autumn 2007 MT1 problem 1
Final exams:
Winter 2009 problems 3, 5, and 7
Autumn 2008 problems 2, 3, and 7
Spring 2008 problems 2, 7, and 8
Winter 2008 problems 2 and 6
Autumn 2007 problems 2, 3, 4, and 9
Spring 2007 problems 1, 3, and 6
Winter 2007 problems 2, 3, 5, and 6
Autumn 2006 problems 1, 4, and 7
In general, when looking at second midterm exams in the archive, you can ignore any problems involving trigonometry or the word "sinusoidal".
An interesting application of exponential functions is to spirals. The are many kinds of spirals. One is the equiangular spiral. Using polar coordinates instead of cartesian coordinates, one can say that equiangular spirals are the exact polar analogue of cartesian exponential curves (i.e., curves which are the graphs of exponential functions). They have numerous properties, and can be found in many places nature (e.g., seashells, hurricanes, galaxies). Here is an applet I wrote some time ago illustrating the "equiangular" feature of these spirals. The Wikipedia page on equiangular spirals is quite nice and informative.
Here is a table of approximate grade translations for the exam scores. This is only approximate: I will not use this translation for anything. There is only one curve actually used in the course, and that is at the end of the course, after all exams, homeworks, etc., have been combined into a single composite score for each student. This table is just here to give you a rough idea of how you are doing, based solely on your exam score.
| exam score | approximate grade |
| ≤15 | 0.0 |
| 16 | 0.7 |
| 17 | 0.9 |
| 18 | 1.2 |
| 19 | 1.5 |
| 20 | 1.8 |
| 21 | 2.1 |
| 22 | 2.4 |
| 23 | 2.7 |
| 24 | 2.8 |
| 25 | 2.9 |
| 26 | 3.0 |
| 27 | 3.1 |
| 28 | 3.2 |
| 29 | 3.3 |
| 30 | 3.4 |
| 31 | 3.5 |
| 32 | 3.6 |
| 33 | 3.7 |
| 34 | 3.8 |
| 35 | 3.9 |
| ≥36 | 4.0 |
Answers to the first midterm exam are now on the test archive (in the Materials Website, link at right).
Here are the statistics for the first midterm exam: n=304; min=0; 1st quartile=16.75; median=23; 3rd quartile=29.25; max=40 (2 students)
CLUE will be holding a review session for Math 120 on Tuesday, January 26 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in MGH 251.
Here is a study guide for the first midterm exam.
Just a note to let everyone know that the Math Study Center will be closed this coming Sunday and Monday for MLK day.
Also, there is an errata sheet for the course textbook available on the 120 Materials Website (link at right). Check that out for known errors in the text, particularly in answers to homework problems.
Welcome to Math 120 C, Autumn quarter 2009.
Announcements and other useful things will be posted here during the quarter, so check this site frequently.
Textbook: The textbook for this course is Precalculus, by Collingwood and Prince, the 2009-10 edition. The book can be purchased at Professional Copy and Print, located at 1414 NE 42nd St. It is not available at the UW bookstore.
You do not have to purchase the textbook. It is available electronically on the Math 120 Materials Website (link at right).
It is necessary that you use the 2009-10 edition. Many changes were made from the 2008-9 to the 2009-10 edition, and there will be much confusion if you try to use the 2008-9 or earlier editions.
Discussion Board: The course has a discussion board (link at right). This is a great way to ask questions of me in a way that will benefit all students in the course. You can ask about homework questions, studying methods, etc. You can also use it to coordinate study sessions with other students.
Homework Schedule: The homework schedule is available at right. This is the only place this information is available, so please check here to get the schedule.