Start early
They do not wait until the night before homework is due to start
it. This gives you the opportunity to re-read the book, seek out
help, or come back to exercises you had difficulty with.
Work their solutions out on paper
They do not sit at the computer punching numbers into their calculator.
Work out complete, clearly labeled solutions
This makes it easy to go back over them, to figure out where you
made a mistake, to get help from your teacher or another student,
or to review for a test. You may want to keep them all in a notebook.
Do not solve the problem in the margins
of their WebAssign printout
See previous point. If you are going to use a printout from WebAssign,
at least turn it over
Use a good, systematic problem strategy
The GOAL strategy is the main
one we use in this class, but there are other similar strategies
around. Some problems are easy enough to solve with out one, but
think of them as practice for those problems you can't solve without
a strategy. Start by identifying the fundamental principle(s). From
that they identify equations to use, any additional information
they need to obtain and information that is superfluous. Work out
an algebraic solution before getting out the calculator. Algebraic
solutions are easier to find your mistakes, compare with your fellow
students, and review later. Check their work before entering it
in the computer. Make sure that it is a reasonable value and has
right units. It is faster to check it right away then to come back
and figure out what you did wrong later.Work with other students
If you make it your goal to help everyone understands why (and not
just get "the answer"), this will be a good learning experience
for you.
University
of Pittsburgh