Pages 295-296 of the course pack (pages 294-295 in last year's edition) contain a final exam study guide, followed by extensive practice problems and solutions.  Most of the information in that study guide is still applicable; this document describes only changes relevant to this term's exam.

Material Covered

In terms of material that is fair game for the exam, there are no changes from the study guide.  Basically, you are responsible for everything covered in class this semester except the graphical method for solving linear programs (assignment 2), and discrete event simulation (the QUEUE model on page 229 of the course pack).

Exam Format

As is standard procedure in this course, all sections will take the same exam at the same time, regardless of instructor.  Just as in the past few years, there will be three optimization questions and two simulation questions.  Thus, the exam splits up about the same as the course itself:  60% optimization modeling, and 40% simulation modeling.  By agreement among all the course instructors, there will be some minor changes in the exam format this term:

• All three optimization modeling questions will be algebra questions; they will vary in difficulty.
• There will be one multi-period simulation question, in a format similar to the course pack practice problems  "gambling", "investing in risky stocks", "shuttle buses", "managing inventory", and "renting out construction equipment".  Parts of this question may also address interpretation of YASAI's output.
• There will be one single-period simulation question.  Although the basic problem and model will be similar to the practice questions, the format will be comparable to Q2 of my section's second midterm: you will be given a mostly-blank spreadsheet form containing only problem data.  In this open spreadsheet grid, you should fill in the formulas you need to build an appropriate YASAI model.

Exam Rules

Although we were at one time considering changing the exam rules, we have decided to leave them unchanged.  You are allowed:

• Up to two sheets of notes in your own handwriting, both sides of the paper permitted
• A calculator (which should not really need)
• If you are not a native speaker of English, a bilingual dictionary.

Suggested Study Plan

Basically, you should follow the study plan described on page 296 of the course pack.  However, since we will not have a spreadsheet optimization modeling question on this exam, you should probably skip the "linear and integer programming" practice questions that are spreadsheet-based.  If you have some extra time, you could try doing these questions as if they were algebra questions (unfortunately, solutions are are not available in that format).