Old Midterm and Advice

Using the old midterm to study--my advice

There are two ways of using an old exam with answers to prepare for a new exam:

1. Look at questions and answers, try to memorize the answers.

2. Look at only the questions, answer them all, then when you are done look at my answers to check yours.

Method 1 doesn't work. Any question that is on the old midterm is very unlikely to be the new one. And besides, you have already spent the first part of the semester going through similar problems, with answers, in class.

Method 2 does work--not as a way of learning but as a way of finding out whether you are adequately prepared, and if not where the problems are. It's worth learning that before you take the real exam, not afterwards.