MATH151: Frequently Asked Questions


On this page I try to answer some Frequently Asked Questions about MATH151.

  1. Multiple-choice quiz in week 4
  2. Multiple-choice quiz in week 8
  3. In-class test in week 12
  4. Multiple-choice quiz in week 13
  5. The final exam

Multiple-choice quiz in week 4

Q. Could you please tell the topic areas that are included in this weeks online test?

A. The chapters covered are `Indices, Surds and Algebraic Fractions' (chapter one) and `Logarithms' (chapter two).

Multiple-choice quiz in week 8

Q. Could you please tell the topic areas that are included in this weeks online test?

A. The chapters covered are `Function Notation' (chapter three), `Mostly About Straight Lines' (chapter four) and `Trigonometry' (chapter five).

In-class test in week 12

Q. For the in-class test in week 12, what topics in the maths booklet will be examined?

A. The in-class test will predominantly cover topics from the third unit of the subject: Chapter 6 (Exponential Growth & Decay), Chapter 7 (Data Modelling) and Chapter 8 (Limits). It may also include questions from the end of Chapter 5 (Trigonometry).

It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that in order to answer questions from these chapters you need to have a sound grasp of most of the material taught in unit one and unit two.

Q. Will we get a re-sit test in the following two weeks for this in-class test?

A. You can determine the answer to this question by reading the subject outline. Read the section In-Class Tests (on page 4 of the 2013 subject outline).

Multiple-choice quiz in week 13

Q. Could you please tell the topic areas that are included in this weeks online test?

A. The chapters covered are `Exponential Growth & Decay' (chapter six), `Data Modelling' (chapter seven), `Limits' (chapter eight) and `Differentiation' (Chapter nine).

The final exam

Q. In the final exam, is the pass mark (for the entire subject) 50% regardless of my other marks in in class tests, assignments and multiple-choice quizzes?

A. You can determine the answer to this question by reading the subject outline. Read the section Assessment (on page 3 of the 2013 subject outline).

Q. What is weight of each of the chapters? for example, is there likely to be more trig than other chapters? Also, how much will be examined on the work covered in the second-half of the subject? Is it likely to be 50% on the first half and 50% on the second half?

A. I'm often asked what sections of the notes will be examined on the final exam. Here are some guidelines. Please note that the following comments should not be taken as a 100% guarantee. To see why this is so, consider a hypothetical question on data-modelling that is worth five marks. To answer such a question correctly you might need to know about logarithms and exponential functions. However, in the following I would count this question as five marks on on data modelling.

The exam paper has two sections. The first section contains twenty multiple choice. There are ten chapters in the book. (I'm ignoring chapter zero). On average there will be two questions per chapter. The first section is worth twenty marks, one for each question.

The second section contains long answer questions that are worth a total of forty marks. How these marks are divided up amongst the chapters of the subject book may vary from year-to-year. The marks for this section in 2012 were approximately as follows:

The material examined from chapters two to seven will more likely be maths "in action" type questions. The material examined from the remaining chapters will be more likely to be "math" type questions.

You will note that there are no marks allocated in part B to chapter 1. But, of course, if you don't have the basic algebra skills from this chapter you won't be able to answer many of the questions in this section.


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Page Created: 27th May 2013.
Last Updated: 27th May 2013.