Results of Exam 1

I am sorry for taking a long time to read your papers. Reading solutions to Problem 1 and 6 was especially difficult. These were problems where you really had to create something new. You had to do more than find a number or make a computation. You had to make an argument. Unfortunately your education before university may not have given you much practice with this. The skill of making an argument cannot well be tested for on a multiple-choice examination. But it is perhaps the most important thing to be learned at a university.

I have expanded my remarks on Problems 1 and 6 in my solutions. The links are on the main course page, but also here:

• pdf
• ps
• dvi
• tex

Please have a look. Your scores are here. You may see your paper whenever I am in my office (see my schedule), but you should have read my solutions and remarks before asking questions like, “What did I do wrong in this problem?”