I am emailing a link of this to everyone on the class list every week. If you are not receiving these emails or want to have them sent to another email address feel free to email me at jpmccarthymaths@gmail.com and I will add you to the mailing list.

20% Written Assessment 1

The first written assessment takes place Tuesday 7 March at 09:00 in B242.

Here you can see type of questions which you will have to be able to answer in the first test.

The questions are divided into P, M and D:

  • P are pass questions and test your ability to implement methods and show basic understanding.
  • M are merit questions and test your ability to solve slightly harder problems as well as understand error.
  • D are distinction questions and test your ability on solve hard problems, generalised problems as well show a deeper understanding.

Your Test will have, roughly,

  • 30 Marks of P questions
  • 40 Marks of M questions
  • 10 Marks of D questions

See here for some worked examples.

20% VBA Assessment 1

The first VBA Assessment takes place Tuesday 14 March in A285 at the usual times.

“I have decided that you will not be allowed any resources other than the library of code and formulae at the end of the assessment. Furthermore the digits of your student number will be used to personalise your assessment(!). Also there will be an Assessment A and an Assessment B.”

The VBA assessment tests your ability to write programs to tackle a specific problem. If you do everything correctly, you can use Euler’s Method only but the most you can get is 80%. To get more than 80% (and get marked out of 100%) you will have to implement Heun’s Method.

There will be two problems.

Problem 1: First Order Initial Value Problem with Parameters [80%]

If you are comfortable writing a VBA program that implements Heun’s Method, and your program is correct, you get 70% by doing Part B ii. There is an additional 10% available if you can use the program to analyse the problem.

If you are comfortable writing a VBA program that implements Euler’s Method, and your program is correct, you get 55% by doing Part B i. There is an additional 10% available if you can use the program to analyse the problem.

If you can implement Heun’s Method on a worksheet (given parameters), you can get 20% by doing Part A i.

If you can implement Euler’s Method on a worksheet (given parameters), you can get 15% by doing Part A i.

Problem 2: Second Order Initial Value Problem without Parameters [20%]

This is in a non-VBA environment.

5% for writing the second order initial value problem as two first order problems.

15% for solving the system on a worksheet using Heun’s Method.

10% for solving the system on a worksheet using Euler’s Method.

More detailed information outline (including practise questions).

A sample (with a messy Problem 1) with Excel and VBA work sent to you as an attachment.

LEARNING CODE ‘OFF’ IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER.

You need to understand what you are doing.

Week 5

We introduced the full Runge-Kutta Theory.

In VBA we look at second order systems using Euler’s Method

Week 6

We start looking at Boundary Value Problems.

In VBA we look at implementing Runge-Kutta Methods.

Assessment

The following is a proposed assessment schedule:

  1. Week 6, 20 % In-Class Written Test, Sample in Week 4
  2. Week 7, 20% First VBA Assessment, Sample in Week 5
  3. Week 11, 20% Second VBA Assessment, Sample in Week 9
  4. Week 12, 40% Written Assessment(s), Sample in Week 10

Study

Study should consist of

  • doing exercises from the notes
  • completing VBA exercises

Student Resources

Please see the Student Resources tab on the top of this page for information on the Academic Learning Centre, etc..

 

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