Math 12 Final Exam (9:15am class) Postmortem -- Winter 2009

Math 12 -- D. C. Smolarski, S.J.
Santa Clara University, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

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NOTES:

General:

Prob 1:
Several people forgot to use the 1/2 angle formula. Some integrated cos 2u incorrectly.

Prob 2:
Some forgot the negative sign when substituting u= cos 2x and taking the derivative.

Prob 3:
Some did not make a substitution for the exponent and incorrectly integrated. Others made elementary arithmetic errors, e.g., thinking e8 - e4 equals e4, which is not true.

Prob 4:
The easiest way is to reduce the hyperbolic trig functions to the definitions (in terms of e to some power), then multiply out the expressions, and then integrate. Some people multiplied incorrectly and others lost a negative sign or a divisor of 3 in a couple of the expressions. (Since the exponent in 3 of the 4 e-expressions was not an "x-all by itself", an (implicit) u-substitution is needed.) An alternative approach is to convert cosh 2x to something in terms of cosh x or sinh x. Another alternative is to reduce the hyperbolic trig functions and after multiplying the expressions, combining those with similar powers and converting back into a difference of two cosh expressions.

Prob 5:
The derivative of arctan x is 1/(1+x2). But the derivative of arctan u is 1/(1+u2) du/dx. The derivative is not in the denominator. Some people had an extra term in their answer.

Prob 6:
If the denominator were multiplied out, the highest power would be 4. Thus one needs to create FOUR partial fractions.

The first sum in the denominator factors to x(x+1), the second factors to 4(x2+1) which CANNOT be factored any further. Thus you should have 4 fractions to integrate: A/x, B/(x+1), C/(x2+1) and D(2x)/(x2+1), with the constant 4 being associated with any of them or multiplied outside all of them. Since the first sum in the denominator CAN be factored, it MUST be factored -- you cannot use the technique for non-factorable quadratic to handle the first sum.

Several people had different integrals, but misused the "ln u" rule and got the same answer! Anytime two DIFFERENT integrals give the SAME answer, you should ask whether something is wrong!

Several people correctly constructed the 4 partial fractions, but then didn't integrate them as the problem explicitly stated to do.

Prob 7:
Some people forgot that "solving" a differential equation means coming up with a equation in x and y WITHOUT any derivative in it. The values for x and y are used to determine the value of C after the integration (which is done after the "variables are separated"). Note that one should not "wait" to insert the constant until after manipulating an equation first -- this often leads to mathematical inconsistencies.

Numerous people forgot to include the absolute value signs around y after integration (in "ln|y|").

A number of people incorrectly attempted to "separate variables" resulting in x2 being in the numerator rather than the denominator.

Prob 8:
The function being integrated is always positive since all the powers are even and the numerator is a sum. Thus the area under the curve (i.e., the value of the integral) should be positive (if it exists). A negative answer to "naive" integration should indicate something is incorrect. In reality, this is an improper integral which diverges. So to evaluate it, one must use the technique of substituting b for the limit of integration at the problem point and taking the appropropriate limit for b.

There were numerous simple algebra mistakes, e.g., people saying that x6=x2x3 or x2/x6 = 1/x3.

Prob 9:
From the many examples we did, 1-x2 demands the substitution that x = sin u. Some people used all sorts of substitutions other than this correct one. A few people used a "substitution" in which the new variable was the same as the old variable, leading to confusion. A few didn't express the final answer in terms of the original variable x.

Prob 10:
Several people treated 1-x2 as if it were "non-factorable." However, it IS factorable and it MUST be factored before using the partial fractions techniques. Several lost a negative sign when integrating 1/(1-x). Several people neglected to find values for A and B.

Prob 11:
A couple of people lost a few points because they indicated an answer that would take more work (i.e., it was not the "best/simplest"). E.g., c) should be done by simple substitution (#6) rather than the secant substitution (#3) and f) should by done by simple substitution (#6 with u = ln x) rather than by parts (#7). A couple of people lost a few points because they did not indicate what u (or dv) were when indicating options 6, 7 or 8.

Statistics

Scores, raw and normalized
       final   nfinal
        246       69
        245       69
        240       67
        238       66
        236       65
        229       62
        228       62
        227       62
        227       62
        223       60
        221       59
        220       59
        219       58
        215       57
        215       57
        214       56
        205       53
        199       50
        198       50
        197       50
        193       48
        186       45
        177       42
        168       38
        163       36
        151       31
        144       28
        121       19
        111       15
         83        4

MAXIMUM 250      100

Distribution

                                       x
                                       x
                                       x
                                       x
                                       x
                                       x
                                  x    x    x
                                  x    x    x
                        x         x    x    x
              x         x    x    x    x    x
    x         x    x    x    x    x    x    x
    70-  90- 110- 130- 150- 170- 190- 210- 230- 
    89  109  129  149  169  189  209  229  250  
   (1)  (0)  (2)  (1)  (3)  (2)  (5) (11)  (5)

Number of Perfect Scores per Problem

  1. 21/30 (on Mid I, 6/31) "Easiest"
  2. 20 (on Mid II, 3/31)
  3. 20 (on Mid III, 9/31)
  4. 13 (on 2008 Final, 16/31)
  5. 20
  6. 11
  7. 9 "second hardest"*
  8. 7 "Hardest"
  9. 14
  10. 10
  11. 15
*A number of people lost a single point for omitting absolute value signs in the ln expression.


This page is maintained by Dennis C. Smolarski, S.J. dsmolarski at scu.edu
© Copyright 2009 Dennis C. Smolarski, SJ, All rights reserved.
Last changed: 19 March 2009.