Thoughts after Test 1?

[Ben Rolnik 1D]

Wanted to start a thread sharing thoughts / feedback after Test 1.

For me... my biggest "not to self" is to PACE MYSELF WAY BETTER NEXT TIME! The time seemed to shoot by in an instant. I could have easily used 30 more minutes so the biggest piece of feedback for myself I have is to move MUCH faster next time.

Also, after taking the exam I see now that I should spend more time doing the hardest practice problems (and I can save myself massive amounts of time going over the easier problems, especially if I already know how to set up the equations or dimensional analysis). I think the test was very straightforward -- so I expect any basics concepts to be tested in a straightforward way.

Would love to know what you guys discovered for yourself!

xo
Ben

[Stephanie H]

Yeah, I think it would be best to look at all the exam questions instead of answering them in order to see which question would be more time consuming.

[Sarah_Wilen]

Great test taking and studying tips. Thank you! What kind of threw me off for this test was using pen. When I made a mistake, I would have to cross it out and my final answers would end up confusing and messy. Anyone have tips to counter this?

[Johana Jeon 1A]

I agree with Ben - you need to be able to pace yourself during the exam b/c 50 minutes feels really limiting (esp if there are a lot of parts to each questions)
That's why when I study Dr. Lavelle's practice exams / do the work problems from the book, I set the timer to 45 minutes and pretend like I'm taking the test
During the actual exam in class, try to give yourself 5 minutes to solve each problem and that should give you about 5~10 minutes at the end to go over one more time just to double check your answers

Also my BIGGEST mistake during LS30A/B was to write down answers in pen :-(
I would start tripping out (in the middle of the exam) and make a lot of mistakes and at the end, my test would look like a mess (all those white out marks.....)
I suggest you just solve everything in pencil and write your final answers in PEN; although there's a no regrade policy when written in pencil, it's much better that way imo!

[Ricky Z1D]

I think the only way to counter messiness is to write small and to keep steps organized in a pattern. I started from the top left of the question and wrote the steps below each other until I ran out of space and then I moved towards the right of the page.

I think another way to counter messiness is to do the problem mentally first which could help in minimizing mistakes, but it would probably waste time and time seems to be very limited on his tests.

[Sarah_Wilen]

Great tips thank you! Are you allowed to write in pencil?

[Johana Jeon 1A]

Yes this is what my TA said,

"Although I strongly suggest students use pen, I do allow the use of pencil on tests within certain restrictions. Specifically if a test is is written in pencil then this removes the possibility of an exam regrade if a student feels that the test has been graded in error. The reasoning for this is that it is much simpler for students to commit academic dishonesty if an exam is completed in pencil since answers or work can be erased and replaced after the fact of grading whereas pen is obviously more permanent. If you are concerned about this an alternative option would be to complete the exam in pencil and provided that their is enough time at the end of the exam, you could trace over your pencil written work with a pen. This method would allow you to make changes during the exam but still commit to your final answers before handing in the exam. Of course, this method is assuming that you have enough extra time at the end of the exam to trace over everything which is not always the case."

[805070989]

I couldn't agree more with Ben. Pacing myself is something I personally feel like I need to work on. As well as writing small is a great tip especially because writing in pen is preferred.

[Odalis Section 1E]

I realized that I felt so much pressure that I wasn't able to read the questions and interpret them the way I might have understood it. My friend had explained the question to me after the test and I had realized it was easier than I thought.

[Amoreno Section 1E]

I definitely agree with Ben. The test overall was pretty straight forward but I feel like I did not pace myself very well. Before i knew it we only had ten minutes left and I still had 3 problems to work through. I think that for Exam 1 I'm going to start off by reading each question and answering the easier ones so I can give myself more time on the harder questions.

[Juan Liberato]

How are yall studying? Are you working through practice problems only or using any other methods?

[Amy Wu 1D]

I did find pacing really useful, but I was definitely slowed down when it came to interpreting some of the questions. How do you guys typically go about interpreting the questions? Also, how precise do we have to be when (say using the atomic mass of an element) to calculate the answers?

[Gwyndolyn]

Amy, to answer your question about how precise you need to be, I would suggest that you use all the numbers written out on the formula sheet. To save some time, you don't have to write out all the numbers when showing your work, you could probably even just write 'me', just as long as it's all in the calculator. I think it's important to keep all the number as specific as possible until the end when you use sig figs, because otherwise your number can change a fair amount.

[204580382]

I agree with Ben. I wish I could have paced myself more and had practiced more of the complicated questions when studying for the test.