Discussion of Test 4 sample test answer key:
When you turn in your work on the odd-numbered problems, I'll let you see a brief answer key.
If you only said which type of technique you need to use to solve each problem, then the answer key you see will only include that much of the solution.
If you actually worked each problem, then the answer key will have enough to enable you to check your computations and your answers about the conditions. It doesn't have full solutions to the computations and the explanations are brief. For models of how you should write solutions, see these examples and, of course the answers to the questions in the homework and quizzes using the four-step process. This answer key is to enable you to check your work on the sample test. Please ask questions needed.
Every semester after Test 4, when I talk with students, I think that I should write something called "How to Read Answer Keys." After Test 4, when students look at a problem they missed half the points on and I say "Did you get a similar problem right on the sample test?" some of them say "It looked right to me -- I had the same numbers." There's a lot more to writing correct solutions than getting the right numbers. I hope you will think carefully about that as you grade your sample test.
Feel free to ask me questions about your answers if you can't tell whether they are completely correct. And think about the answers to the quiz questions I have given in the course.
I have tried hard to eliminate any mistakes, but there may still be mistakes. Please don't spend a lot of time on anything before you ask whether there is a mistake.
For those of you who want to see the answer key without actually working the problems first, the answer will be no. The text has answers for all the odd-numbered problems in the text. Use those. For solutions with more details, see the examples in the book or the answers for the quizzes that I have shown you. Those are more like what you should be writing in your solutions than just the short answers in the back of the book. This sample test answer key is set up to help students who have already done the work on a problem. Moreover, in my experience, students who don't actually do a sample test for this material before taking the actual test score about 25 points lower than they would have if they had done a sample test. I insist that you do the sample test as a test, meaning that you must use your notes rather than the book, and without looking up answers as you do it.
Last updated Nov. 13, 2006 . Mary Parker