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For all written assignments for collection: Write your answers clearly, show all work, and staple the sheets together.

You can optimize your chances on exams by prioritizing your answers. Do the easier problems and those with higher point-count first while saving the others for your second round. When answering, you can state results with answers in rough form but then go back and add more detail. Also, don't erase till you've replaced! That is, save your answers until you have replaced them with something new. Otherwise, what happens is that you turn in papers with nothing written for some problem - no way to give partial credit then! In general, show how you obtain your answers. At the least, make a reasonable guess for problems; often you really do know the answer but are hesitant to try. Avoid putting down two contradictory answers (e.g., Yes and No) as you are only wasting time - pick one of them! Also, you should be sure that you are answering the problem which was asked - a small misprint can convert something easy into something which is either false or very hard to do. And answering things that weren't asked takes time away from you ability to do what was asked. However, don't be afraid to observe that you think the problem data has a misprint (say where the error is and why you think it is an error).

I want my students to be intelligent and skeptical users of information, who add value to what they are involved with.