The Applied Mathematics Department is dedicated to making mathematics accessible to all students in its classes. Nationally about 40% of all students who take Calculus I fail it at least once. In an attempt to increase the percentage of students who pass Calculus I (currently about 30% fail in APPM), instructors, teaching assistants and research assistants offer Calculus I students the opportunity to participate in small group oral reviews (referred to as “orals”).
Any student in APPM 1350 may take an oral on the Monday and Tuesday before each of the three written mid-term exams, after signing up in advance. These orals generally have 5 students and a facilitator. An oral takes 50 minutes. The facilitator asks students conceptual questions about the main topics that will be covered on the written exam. Students are expected to explain concepts verbally, draw graphs to support their reasoning, and negotiate understanding with the facilitator and with the other students in the group.
These oral reviews are optional and are not graded. They are meant to help students develop a deeper understanding of important concepts which in turn will help them be more effective in deciding what procedures and problem solving techniques are appropriate for given problems. Orals seem to be most helpful to students who have studied for the exam before taking the oral.
This is the second year that orals have been made available to every APPM Calculus I class. Analysis of last year’s data showed that in all categories of scores on the placement exam, students who took orals did significantly better on the mid-term exams than comparable students who did not take orals. The orals helped the students to clear up misunderstandings and to pinpoint areas where they needed to do further studying before the written exam. The pass rate is normally less than 10% for students with scores below 18 on the placement exam. Students with scores on the placement exam between 18 and 22 pass 1350 at about a 60% rate, and students with 23 and above generally pass 1350 at rates above 80%. In each of these three groups, students who attended orals averaged 6-10 points higher on each mid-term exam than students with comparable scores on the placement exam who did not use orals.
All orals will be given on the Monday and Tuesday before the written mid-term exams:
All of the oral exams will occur in one of four rooms:
NOTE: If your oral exam is scheduled at 5 PM or later, the outer door of this complex will be locked. You should meet your facilitator AT the outer door just before the exam is scheduled to begin. She/he will let you into the WIEP-MEP complex.
The Discovery Learning Center (DLC) is the building north-east of the Engineering Center at the corner of Colorado and Regents Drive. The 2nd floors of the two buildings are connected by a bridge that you may have walked under. DLC 207 is a room ON that bridge.
This is the conference room in the BOLD Center, now known as in ECCE100. However, if you were around last year you might know it as the "MEP conference room."
Enter the Engineering Center through the revolving doors. Continue to walk east, past the tables and chairs in the lobby. Turn RIGHT at the second hallway, which is about 5 m in front of the double doors marked "Administrative Offices". Walk south in that hallway about 30 m to a door on your left, next to two large windows on your left, numbered ECCE 100. This set of rooms houses the Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) and the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP). Walk in, and turn LEFT into the hallway there. Look for a room on your RIGHT, marked ECCE100.
Directions: In the Engineering Center, take the elevator to the second floor. In the hallway slightly to your right, ECOT 226 is the first room on your left. (The Applied Math Office is directly across from this room.)
In the Engineering Center take the elevator to the ground floor. Go EAST of the elevator, across the courtyard, to the ECEE wing. Find a hallway that leads east from the courtyard, past the office of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. ECEE 1B28 is a classroom on your right in that hallway.
Go to the website for the Oral Exam Scheduler.