If you're spending more than half an hour on one problem and not making progress, please come to the office hours. All problems are equal credit but not equal difficulty. The prepared student will recognize the easier questions. Roughly half the problems will be straightforward and deal with fundamental concepts. The rest will be harder, drawing from more specific topics.
Partial credit is available on all exam problems.
Although the exams are all open-book, you must come to them prepared. Attached to each 20-minute exam are all necessary constants and complicated equations, but you will have time only for brief consultation of your notes. Long tables will sometimes be left for the text to provide, to save paper. The 20-minute exam on which you get your lowest score will be dropped from calculation of the final grade. If you are unable to take an exam for any reason, that exam will become your dropped score.