Exam 3 hints

I sent one of you an email a little bit ago with exam suggestions. Here's what I said.

The exam questions this time around will be simpler than before, mainly because (1) we had to rush a bit to get through the last material, and (2) the last material doesn't really build on what came earlier like it did for the other tests (e.g., circular motion problems could involve forces and momentum from earlier chapters, whereas thermodynamics doesn't use anything that came before it, really). The exam problems will probably be a *little* harder than the practice ones, maybe more like the HW7 problems. (The HW7 problems are a little harder, I think.) 

On the other hand, if you can get the practice problems, exam-realistic problems are mainly just going to be a situation where once you figure out what is going on, you really just have two smaller problems to do in two steps. Those two smaller problems are like the practice ones. In that regard, HW7 is a better estimate of what the test will look like, but the practice problems are a good reminder of all the little steps that might go into a bigger problem.
I would suggest looking over HW7 - even if you don't end up doing it all for credit if you want to take advantage of the dropped HW - just to see if you understand all the problems. That, plus a quick look at practice problems and you should be fine I think. Another thing is to look at the worked examples in the book, where you can see all the steps worked out.

The other thing to remember is the 'best 4 out of 5' part of the exam - if you really don't know how to do one problem, forget about it. It will be your lowest scoring problem in that case, and not count anyway, so save your time for the other 4. (If you know how to do all 5, do them, but focus on your best 4 first). 

If you feel like you have the time, you can also look at exam 3 and the practice exam 3 here for some more variety: 

http://bama.ua.edu/~jharrell/PH125-S11/exams/ 

There are answers, but no solutions (not my test). They are a little more involved, since it is for the honors course, but not that much. These questions would probably be a lower priority though ...