Friday 1/20 – Exp and Log Functions

// Before class

• Make sure you’ve done the reading for Section 5.1 and taken careful notes in your Notebook, and that you have your Notebook with you in class to use during the Daily Quiz

// During class

• Daily Quiz on the reading for Section 5.1
• Hand back Double HW Quiz and briefly discuss
• Ways to get help in this class
• Questions?
• Group work and discussion of Section 5.1

// After class

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. If you want to stay on track in this class and not fall behind, then follow the instructions below to start good study habits for this class. The basic idea after each class day is to complete ALL the homework for the section we just talked about, and to do so before the next class, taking the time to get help if you need to. In addition, you’ll have to get ready for the next class by reading and taking notes on the next section. Once you get used to it, you’ll find it to be easy; but to get started I’ll break things down in fine detail for this particular weekend:

• Finish the reading for Section 5.1, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE:  At this point you hopefully already read Section 5.1, but you may not have read the Examples and Explorations. Reading through those examples and taking notes is a great place to start your work for this section, and doing so as soon as you can after class will help you make sense of the material.
• Do the homework for Section 5.1, BEFORE MONDAY’S CLASS:  It is your responsibility to complete as many homework problems as you require for complete mastery of the material in Section 5.1. The class Homework Notebook Policy provides guidance on the minimum amount of homework that you should do for each section, but I’ll be more specific today to help get you on track. Here is a list of the minimum set of exercises that I recommend you do for Section 5.1:
  • Thinking Back – all problems
    These should be easy review, but if they aren’t then make sure that you review what you need to so that you can do them all.
  • Concepts – #0, #1, #2, and five problems from #3–22
    You already did #0 when you read the section. Always do all of the True/False questions in #1 and all of the Example questions in #2. In #3–22, choose five problems that you are not immediately sure how to answer and figure out how to answer them. Don’t pick the first five; distribute your choices so that you do a range of types of problems.
  • Skills – choose three problems from #23–28, three from #29–36, six from #37–48, six from #49–62, three from #63–70, three from #71–74, and three from #75–80
    You’re supposed to do a minimum of 20 Skills problems for each section, but often you will need to do more. My suggested list above has 27 problems. Choose a few problems from each “block”, and if you have trouble then choose more of them before you go on. Don’t just pick the first/easiest problems in a block; try to pick a wide range of problems. Skills problems are particularly valuable to have in your Notebook, but ONLY if you actually write out the question and show all your work, not just the final answer. Remember that you can check your answers to almost every Skills problem by using wolframalpha.com, and you should learn how to do this instead of just looking at odd answers in the back of the book.
  • Applications – choose one problem from #81–86
    In general I recommend not choosing the easiest or the hardest problems; pick something in the middle that seems most related to examples in the reading or what we discussed in class. For Section 5.1, I’d suggest choosing something from #83–#85.
  • Proofs – choose two problems from #87–96
    Again, try to choose things that are mid-range and related to the reading or class discussions. For Section 5.1, I’d suggest a couple of problems from #87–92.
• Read Section 5.2, BEFORE MONDAY’S CLASS:  Looking at the Calendar, you can see that in Monday’s class we will be covering Section 5.2. That means that you need to carefully read and take notes on that section to be ready for the Daily Quiz on Section 5.2 on Monday. Remember that you will be allowed to use your Notebook on the quiz.