i have learned a lesson today about writing exams. unless you really mean to, never ask your students to graph anything. it amounts to grading artwork on lesser merits.

[sighs]

on the plus side, apparently the exam i wrote wasn't up to my usual standards of diffculty; for my 40-point test, there were quite a few marks in the mid-30s.

either i'm getting soft, or the students here know how to compute (as opposed to the TI-8? clutching masses that i remember at the U of M).

in fact, there is a no-calculator policy for exams. huzzah!!!!
(you have no idea how happy i was to hear about that.)

at any rate, let's hope that the students don't get too cocky. i don't mind if they don't listen to me in class (as long as they're quiet), but next comes optimizations, lagrange multipliers, and everything that comes with integration. the last thing i need is to settle an unexpected panic on a second midterm.

until then -- a load of grading off my shoulders. teaching-wise, it's smooth sailing until mid- to late october.