sections AA, AB
Alan Bartlett
alanmb at math.washington.edu
section AC, AD
Lidan Wang
lidanw at math.washington.edu
Midterm 1: Thursday, October 17
Midterm 2: Thursday, November 14
Final Exam:
Saturday, December 7
5 to 7:50 PM
Location:Kane 110
Dr. Ostroff, the other 120 instructor this quarter, has written this amazing, ridiculous problem, incorporating a whole slew of topics from the course. A solution may be coming, but I can't guarantee it; if you'd like to work on it, feel free to start a thread on the discussion board to help each other troubleshoot your work. Enjoy?
Here is a list of mechanical skills we've used in the course.
Here is a review sheet for the final exam.
All final exams in the exam archive are good for review, at least back to Autumn 2009. And even before Autumn 2009, most problems will be relevant.
Statistics on the second midterm exam: n=144;min=0; 1st quartile=16; median=21; 3rd quartile=27; max=40 (2 students).
Here is a video of an angle grinder in use (in case you were wondering what an angle grinder was after our warmup problem in lecture today).
Here is a review sheet for the upcoming second midterm exam.
Please read the comments I wrote below before the first midterm exam regarding how to study for and take an exam in this course.
Here are some comments on exams in the archive. Listed are the problems you should do in preparation for the second midterm exam.
Feel free to ask questions about these, or any other problems, in office hours or on the class discussion board.
Here are the statistics for the first midterm exam:
n=153; min=4; first quartile=17; median=25; third quartile=32; max=40 (3 students)
Here is an approximate conversion table. This is only approximate; these 4.0-scale equivalents are not used by me for any purpose: they are just for you to have an idea of how you did on the exam.
| exam score | approx. grade |
| ≤15 | 0 |
| 16 | 0.7 |
| 17 | 0.9 |
| 18 | 1.1 |
| 19 | 1.4 |
| 20 | 1.6 |
| 21 | 1.8 |
| 22 | 2.1 |
| 23 | 2.3 |
| 24 | 2.6 |
| 25 | 2.8 |
| 26 | 2.9 |
| 27 | 3.0 |
| 28 | 3.1 |
| 29 | 3.2 |
| 30 | 3.3 |
| 31 | 3.4 |
| 32 | 3.5 |
| 33 | 3.6 |
| 34 | 3.7 |
| 35 | 3.8 |
| 36 | 3.9 |
| 37 | 3.9 |
| 38 | 4.0 |
| 39 | 4.0 |
| 40 | 4.0 |
Answers to the first midterm exam are now on the Math 120 Materials Website in the Test Archive.
Here is a review sheet for the first midterm exam.
I recommend taking a look at the 120 Test Archive. This will show you what exams in this course look like. I recommend taking at least two exams as exams. That means printing them out, going to a quiet place where nobody will bother you, turning off your phone, and giving yourself 50 minutes to solve all the problems on the exam without any outside help. You should use your notesheet. Then check your work against the posted answers and be strict with yourself about deciding whether or not your work was correct.
Ideally, this will build your confidence, and you will go into the exam next week knowing that you are capable of solving four problems in 50 minutes. If your practice doesn't go well, that will give you ideas of where to focus your studying before the actual exam.
Some exams in the archive have problems on chapter 7, or even chapter 8, material. Our exam only covers through chapter 6. Here are a few suggestions:
If you are not enrolled in the course, but are trying to add, you can get started on the homework without WebAssign by working the following problems in the textbook (which is freely available on the Math 120 Materials Website ).
Chapter 1: problems 1-10, 14,15
Chapter 2: 2-7, 10, 12, 13
These problems will have different numbers than the ones you will have on WebAssign, but if you write out solutions for these, it won't be too much trouble to rework them with the WebAssign values.
These problems will cover you through the first homework assignment.
Interested in switching sections? Go to this discussion board and look for another student who could switch with you.
Welcome to Math 120 A Autumn quarter 2013.
Announcements and other useful things will be posted here during the quarter.
Textbook: The textbook for this course is Precalculus, by Collingwood, Prince and Conroy. The book can be purchased at Professional Copy and Print, located at 4200 University Way (on the Ave one block south of the UW bookstore). 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), and is linked electronically from the WebAssign homework.
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: We will be using WebAssign for homework.
WebAssign: You can log in to WebAssign here. This will require your UW Net ID. Your UW Net ID is the part of your university email address before the @ symbol. The password to log in is your UW Net ID password.
You will need to purchase an access code before the grace period ends. You can purchase an access code on the WebAssign website after logging in.
The first homework assignment will be due on the night of Thursday, October 3.
Exponential Function Modeling Example
Linear to Linear Algebra Example
L2L Functions and Fixed Points
Linear to Linear Rational Function applet
Putting sinusoidal functions in standard form
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