Science:Math Exam Resources/FAQ

	Math Exam Resources

Here are some frequently asked questions. If you have other questions or suggestions for this page, please let us know on its discussion page.

Which courses are available on the wiki?

This resource provides hints and solutions to past exams by the Department of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia in beautiful Vancouver, BC.

The courses for which we have hints and solutions are all listed on the main page. We currently emphasize the large first-year calculus courses, but also offer help for some second year courses.

How do tags work?

You can see that below the list of courses, there is a box that says "Resources by Topic" and a list of links. These links are tags describing various mathematical topics, techniques or concepts. Clicking on any tag will bring you to a list of problems on the wiki that relate to that topic. This can be a valuable learning tool when you are struggling with a particular concept and have run out of questions from your own course exams. Two important things to note when using tags:

Some questions from another course may use material you don't know - if this happens, just skip that question and move on to the next one in the list.
The tagging system is still a work in progress - not all questions have been tagged.

What are the advantages of using a wiki for this?

In other words, how is this wiki different than other studying resources like solution packages, your textbook, etc.?

There are several benefits to studying via this wiki:

Problem-solving and critical thinking are vital components of learning mathematics - you can't just memorize formulas! The solutions on this wiki are specifically written to illustrate the problem-solving process that is necessary to solve each problem, not just provide the final answer.
In addition, our system of hidden hints/solutions allows you to try the problem yourself, then look at a hint before consulting the solution. The hints offer advice such as what techniques are relevant for the given question, how you should think about setting up the problem, or how understanding the motivation of the problem can lead to an idea of how to solve it.
The wiki is interactive - you can ask questions and give feedback via the discussion pages. Whether you think a key hint is missing, and explanation is unclear, you have another way to solve a problem, or simply find a typo - you can leave us a note in the question's discussion tab and we will update the page within a few hours or days.
Best of all, it's free! Not only to UBC students, but to anyone with access to the internet.

Who writes the content of this wiki?

This resource is run by volunteers in their spare time. Most of us are or have been graduate students at the Department of Mathematics at UBC. As Masters and PhD students in mathematics, we have extensive experience in doing math ourselves, as well as experience in communicating about mathematics in our roles as markers, tutors in the Math Learning Centre and instructors of first and second year courses.

Can I use this material on my blog/website/course page/etc?

All the material that you will find in these pages has been created by graduate students at the UBC Math Department and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license. Basically, if you attribute it to us and aren't making any money on it, you can use this material however you like.

I want to contribute to this project, what can I do?

We are always looking for more help! Anyone can assist with the following tasks:

improve our wiki architecture and add new features to our pages and templates,
transcribe exam questions from the original exam document into the wiki,
review the work done by other contributors,
suggest modifications, simplifications, point out errors or request clarifications on the material,
create hints for problems,
and of course: solve math exam problems!

Interested in getting more involved? Email us at mer-wiki (at) math (dot) ubc (dot) ca , and/or have a look at our Contributors Portal, in particular, the contact section to get in touch with us.