Honors Physics Final Exam Information

Content

 Anything studied during the entire term could show up on the final exam.  For a specific list of topics to study, refer to the lists of objectives found on the nine unit assignments.  Only material that was discussed in class and found on homework assignments will be on the final exam.  Expect questions and problems to be very similar to those that you encountered on homework assignments, lab reports, and unit tests.

Format

 The final exam is 35 multiple-choice questions.  There will be no free response questions.  It is the policy of Farragut High School and Knox County Schools that the exam must have this format (your instructor would much prefer a different format).  Expect the questions to be fairly evenly distributed among the various topics of study.  Some questions will deal with definitions and concepts; others will involve numerical problem solving.  Your grade will be determined by the number of correct responses on your answer sheet – there will be no partial credit for incorrect responses

Materials

 Bring to the final exam pencils and blank notebook paper.  I will supply the calculator.  The exam will be closed book and closed notes.  You must use a pencil to fill in responses on the answer sheet; however, you may use a pen for work on scratch paper.  You may also bring to the exam a ruler, a protractor, and/or graph paper, though none of these items are required.

Advice

 Although it may seem impossible, you need to memorize all of the appropriate equations – the same rules will apply to taking the final as did apply to taking the unit exams.  Also you need to understand the definitions for all of the important concepts.  Anything you were expected to memorize for the unit tests you also should know for the final.  Also anything you did not have to memorize for the unit tests you do not need to memorize for the final – for example you do not need to memorize the universal gravitational constant, the mass of the Earth, etc.  I advise you to also spend time studying the SI units and prefixes; know how units (such as N, J, W, etc.) are defined.  You might want to make some flash cards for definitions, equations, prefixes and units.  Lastly, I think the best preparation for the numerical problems is simply to practice, using fresh problems (as opposed to reviewing notes or homework or tests).

Practice

 There are lots of problems in your book – completely worked examples within the chapters and open-ended questions and problems at the end of each chapter.  The answers to the odd-numbered problems are in the back of the book.  You can find interactive computerized practice, including relevant feedback at the book’s web site.  Also, try the practice final that is available from Mr. Milligan’s world – it has questions relating to the major topics we have studied (in the order that we studied them).