I hear the final for Hong's section can be a little tricky. Does anybody have the final from a previous semester, or can tell me what types of problems he puts on it.

12/7/2007 8:46:38 PM

If you've done well over the semester i.e. A's or B's on stuff you'll be fine. It's a fair test in that its only on stuff he's lectured on, but it's cumulative and long which is why its tough, you can get confused or careless. He keeps all finals. If you're in the C or D area or less, you're damn near fucked unless you can redo all your hw's and tests by memory with no notes or answers, he doesn't curve and I believe he reiterated that a lot.

12/8/2007 12:52:36 AM

I have I have an 86, 94, and an 89 on the other tests, so I think I should be ok. Thanks for the info

12/8/2007 11:21:17 AM

Let's see,

1.) can you do the integrating factor method cold?
2.) what is the annihilator method, how to find the correct guess for y_p?
3.) what if the eigenvalues are complex, then what? How does that case go?
4.) inverse Laplace transform of exp(-3s)(s/(s^2+4s+5)), can you do it?

those are some potential trouble spots as I see it, of course I've never taken DEqns from the Hong, but I gather his course is rather broad so my list is probably relevant. Also doesn't he cover the chapter on series solutions to DEqns?

12/8/2007 6:26:20 PM

Quote :

"I've never taken DEqns from the Hong"

(emphasis added)

12/8/2007 7:28:47 PM

Quote :

"2.) what is the annihilator method, how to find the correct guess for y_p?"

i took differential equations with hong -- i've never heard of the annihilator method

12/9/2007 8:26:59 AM

really, no annihilator method? Aww man. I still stand by it being useful to problems likely to appear on the final.

12/9/2007 3:52:58 PM

how is hong for diff e.q. i have him for next semester

12/9/2007 11:41:30 PM

Quote :

" hear the final for Hong's section can be a little tricky. Does anybody have the final from a previous semester, or can tell me what types of problems he puts on it."

I can't believe I'm reading this. Hong's Homework is the same as his test and they'll be the same as his final. Nothing tricky about it. Just study the three homeworks he gives you. It's really hard to do poor in his class.

I will say though, it did take me all 3 hours.

12/10/2007 7:36:57 AM

Quote :

"cause I thought that the test is non cumulative"

how could a 300-level math final not be cumulative?

12/10/2007 9:50:43 AM

I wish I had been able to take Hong for diff eq but my schedule didn't allow it and I got stuck with Tsynkov. I don't remember a thing about diff eqs, even though I got an A+ in the class.

12/10/2007 11:55:34 AM

Yes, I realize this class is easy, I've just heard the his final is a little tricky so I just was trying to get a heads up from somebody that had already taken it. Anyways, thanks for the info.

12/10/2007 4:23:08 PM

Quote :

"how is hong for diff e.q. i have him for next semester"

Dr. Hong is probably the best teacher I have ever had. He makes difficult topics easy to understand and genuinely cares about his students. As long as you do the homework in a timely manner, you will have no problem doing well in the class.

12/11/2007 12:29:31 AM

I didn't care for Hong's class. Basically he just teaches you a few differential equation "patterns" and how to solve them. No underlying theory, just "if the problem looks exactly like this, do this to solve it." Which I suppose is great for the average lazy student who just wants to pass with minimal effort...

As far as the final goes, none of the problems were terribly difficult, it's just that he gave us (at least, when I took it, which was several years ago) 17 problems (and a lot of them were multi-part problems, i.e., one question was something like five Laplace transforms). I'd wager about 90% of the class was still in the room after the three hours was up.

12/11/2007 7:28:56 AM

so all in all his class is simple, and the final is simple but VERY long

12/11/2007 9:15:04 AM

^exactly,

my final had only 10 questions, took all three hours. But just like HW.

12/11/2007 10:19:20 AM

for the final exam, what forms of laplace transforms should we know how to do? there are so many.

12/11/2007 9:32:55 PM

^ the ones that were on test 2 i'm assuming

12/11/2007 10:13:44 PM

It's about doing the final quickly, not really about knowing extra or tricky material.

If you're a normal student, you won't finish it. So do the longest ones first.

12/11/2007 10:23:00 PM

this is true...i tutored stillfurshia

12/11/2007 10:24:45 PM

When I saw drunknloaded posted in this thread I knew it would be funny. He did not disappoint.

12/11/2007 10:47:57 PM

^^ that's the silliest thing I've read all day

12/12/2007 4:22:50 PM

So what did you guys think of the Final? I thought it was entirely too long, and much more challenging than the first 3 exams we took this semester. With that said, I did get it all finished in time and am guessing I got somewhere in the A to B range on it.

12/13/2007 6:55:12 PM

I basically watched my A almost A+ become a B in less than 3 hours.... awesome

12/13/2007 10:24:12 PM

Took this dude sophomore year, probably the easiest math class I have had at state. Everything that is on the final he tells you is on there, so really if you dont understand the stuff you can just memorize the problems and do fine.

12/16/2007 10:04:54 AM

it's all about the show loo shings you get

(btw, he was a good teacher of a hard class)

1/15/2008 7:22:40 PM

I'm taking his class now and it seems okay so far.

Way better than my calc 3 teacher

1/15/2008 8:43:14 PM