Final Exam Review
Our Final exam will be cumulative, meaning that it will cover everything we’ve gone over
in the class. It will be roughly twice as a long as a standard exam and worth twice as many
points. As usual, you will be allowed a calculator Roughly 50% of it will cover material from
the first two exams, and will consist of a selection of the kinds of problems that occurred
on the first and second exams. The second half of the exam will cover newer material from
sections 19-25 in my notes (although the coverage of Section 20 will vary from class to class,
depending on how much we covered). Each of the following topics (again with the possible
exception of the word problems of Section 20) will be worth approximately the same amount
of points on the exam.
Solving Quadratic equations: You must be able to complete the square or use the quadratic formula (which you must memorize if you want to use) in order to solve an arbitrary
quadratic equation.
Graphing: You must be able to graph a quadratic function as in Section 19, this is the
most involved kind of graph you will have to draw. In addition, you must be able to sketch
a rough graph of an exponential function as in Section 21 and a logarithmic function as in
Section 22, although these will be much quicker for you.
Applications of exponential functions: You must be able to solve problems like Homework 21.3 and 21.4 from Section 21 of the notes. You must be especially good with bank
interest problems, test yourself using problems 39-42 of Section 9.1.
Basic Logarithm Skills: You must be able to fully expand and fully condense logarithmic
expressions as in Section 23.
Solving Exponential and Logarithmic Equations: You must be able to solve both
logarithmic and exponential equations as in Section 24 of the notes. This will include being
able to use your calculator to compute decimal approximations of logarithms as necessary,
for which you may need the change of base formula.
Complex Numbers: You must be able to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division using complex numbers as in Section 25 of the notes.
Word Problems: How much we cover the word problems of Section 20 will depend on how
much we covered in class. Please come to class to find out how much these will be covered.
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