Final Exam


The final covers everything from the first two tests plus sections 10.2 and 10.3.  Make sure that, among other study activities, you look through your homework, the quizzes, AND ESPECIALLY THE FIRST TWO TESTS.  Focus on the big ideas and concepts though I will expect you to know some of the more important vocabulary.  A disclaimer: You're responsible for everything we've covered whether or not it shows up in this study guide.

I recommend that you look through the two previous study guides.  They're still online.  The final exam will be slightly longer than the first two tests but you'll have a full two hours to finish it.  Somewhere between a third and a half of the questions will be about sections 10.2 and 10.3... it's hard to tell because some of the questions have multiple parts and combine aspects of multiple sections.  Anyway, make sure you understand sections 10.2 and 10.3!!!!

10.2 and 10.3:  Understand perimeter, area, surface area, volume, the units associated with each.  Area is counting squares and volume is counting cubes and length is counting "sticks".  You won't need to memorize any overly-specialized formulas but you should know how to find perimeter without a formula, circumference, area of circle, area of rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, volume/surface area of prisms, cylinders, pyramids, cones.  You won't need to memorize formulas for spheres.  If you know these things you should be able to figure out other areas, volumes, etc.  For example, you can find the formula for the area of a trapezoid by using the formulas for the area of rectangles and triangles.  There is not a simple relationship between the perimeter of a 2-D shape and its area.  Likewise, there is not a simple relationship between the surface area of a 3-D shape and its volume.

As for the rest of the test... okay, so there's a lot of material on those first two study guides.  I'm not going to ask you anything too specific that would require you to have memorized something.  Here are some notes to help you focus (I still recommend going through all of the study guides though... but then again I also recommend doing every problem in the book).  In general, you're in good shape if the first two tests make sense to you.  Here are some thoughts that may help you figure out what not to prioritize in your studying:  
There's gonna be some problems that look familiar and there's gonna be some that you'll need to think about but I hope there won't be anything that makes you say, "I wish I would've memorized more stuff."  Make sure you understand the material from 10.2 and 10.3 (essential!)... then make sure the first two tests make sense to you (essential!)... then prioritize your studying as you see fit (essential but lower priority)..

Good luck.