Final exam
The final exam score distribution is shown on the left. It is a nice bell-shape distribution. However, the final exam might have been a bit on the difficult side, since the average raw score was only 95 out of 200. The actual “renormalized” score used was the raw score plus 30 points. The distribution on the left shows this renormalized score. What you see in your progress report is also this renormalized score, not the raw score.
- The final exam will be formatted much like the midterm exam.
Review session: in our classroom, 5–6:45 PM on Friday (Mar 13) or 10–11:45 AM on Saturday (Mar 14). Bring your questions!
The review sessions focused mostly on going over materials, while practice problems were touched upon very briefly. Here is a short summary of some notable things discussed (and some information added after the review session) for practice problems.
My barebone summary (sheet 2)—you can bring two sheets of letter-size paper filled on both sides of each sheet.
Practice problems and some more. (Both these files are relevant for the exam.)
Homework
Homework 7, due Mar 12: Light: single slit, diffraction grating, X-ray diffraction (solutions)
Homework 6, due Mar 5: Light: telescope, interference, polarization (solutions)
Correction: Homework 7 → Homework 6.—12:31PM, Mar 05, 2015
Homework 5, due Feb 26: Light: Snell’s law, lenses, compound device (solutions)
Homework 4, due Feb 19: Light: reflection and refraction (solutions)
Homework 3, due Feb 5: Waves, Sound (solutions)
Correction: Homework 4 → Homework 3.—5:16PM, Jan 29, 2015
Homework 2, due Jan 29: SHO and Waves (solutions, by TA David Jenkins)
Homework 1, due Jan 20: Simple harmonic oscillation (hints) (solutions, by TA Amita Kuttner)
Change: due date.—1:41PM, Jan 12, 2015
Midterm
- The midterm score distribution is shown on the left.
- The midterm exam is upon us. It will be held on Feb 12 in our classroom during our regular class schedule.
Here is my barebone summary of relevant materials.
- To the midterm, you can bring one letter size paper filled with potentially useful formulae and facts (like those contained in my summary sheet).
You should also bring a simple calculator for the midterm (not a graphing calculator; a smart phone is not allowed, and neither is any internet connected device).
- As a practice for the midterm exam, I recommend that you try the following.
Try the last year’s midterm. However, note that in this year’s exams, I do not intend to have any multiple choice questions.
Here are some more problems to try.
There will be a review session next week (one of Mo,Tu,We), but I am not certain what time that will be. It depends on students’ schedules and the room schedule. Here is my summary of the two review sessions.


Correction: Problem 5(c) had errors in numbers---corrected.—8:40AM, Mar 10, 2015