PHY252S Thermal Physics: pointers on the final exam

Information

The final exam will be 9am-noon on Wednesday 21st April.
Take a very careful look at the exam format in this blank exam paper (final version). The actual exam will look identical to this, except that it will contain the actual questions ; plus p8 will have all integrals/math and some formulae that you may need.
My 2004 exam will be somewhat similar to my 2002 Final Exam; it is also a good idea to try the 2003 Final Exam for practice as well. (No solutions will be posted here for old final exams, though.)
The majority of the emphasis of the final exam will be on topics that were not examinable for the midterm: i.e. material in chapters 5-7 of the textbook, and in chapter 8 (up to p244 only) with less emphasis. However, all material, i.e. from p1-p244, will be examinable. And, since there wasn't a "traditional-style" long-answer problem about photons/phonons on my midterm, I may give a quantitative long-answer question about photons/phonons (chapter 4) in Part II of the final.
There will be NO question involving dimensional analysis on the final exam. HW#4 is the last place you'll have to do that.
The long-answer quantitative questions (Part II) may look/appear a tad long. Don't get scared by this. The questions will be straightforward; they are designed to lead you through the problem in a step-by-step manner. These questions in Part II are also designed so that, even if you miss some of the earlier bits of the question, you can continue with some of the later bits. This is a good thing !
I plan to give a few other brief hints about the exam during the review lecture on Wednesday 7th April. (To get these hints you will have to attend the lecture; they will not be given elsewhere.)

Study/Exam Technique

If you haven't started studying for the final exam, start ASAP!! Why? Wel, physics generally takes awhile to sink in . And cramming like crazy the night before the exam is way too late! If you don't know your stuff the night before a physics exam, you're unlikely to pass.
Practise answering questions in the format of what you see on the blank exam paper.
To get familiar with time-pressured conditions of the exam, do practice questions while timing yourself e.g. with a [cheap] countdown kitchen timer. Apportion your practice sessions according to the weighting on the exam (e.g. about 3/5 of this type of practising should be on long-answer quantitative questions, 1/5 on multi-choice questions, and 1/5 on writing concise definitions and explanations).
For example:-
[60%] Practise doing quantitative long-answer problems. The best source for questions like this is old final exams. (Other possible sources of problems include various thermal physics texts, making up problems yourself, old homeworks, etc.)
(20%) Practise doing multi-choice questions from old final exams and midterms. Use sensible exam technique, like reading the question VERY carefully, quickly eliminating any silly answers to the questions, ignoring irrelevant information, etc.
(10%) Practise writing concise definitions (e.g. what is an orbital?), using no more than 3 concise sentences.
(10%) Practise concisely explaining major phenomena/principles that were discussed in lecture (e.g. why does capping of phonon modes at 3N happen?) in no more than two paragraphs.
Make sure you review homework problems and notes from tutorials, as well as lecture notes and the KK textbook.
Here's a great tip about studying generally: it's just as important to practise getting information out of your memory, as it is to put more information into your memory. Practising really does help!
I recommend that you make yourself some summary notes (i.e. a condensed version of lecture notes and textbook material), as a study tool.
I (the Prof.) and the TA are pretty darn good test-takers. Over the years we have found that the best time to do a concentrated review of course material is actually two days before the exam.
The best thing you can do the night before the exam is have a really good night's sleep. Honest. (Cramming like crazy the night before the exam is way too late! If you don't know your stuff the night before a physics exam, you're unlikely to pass.) Relax and pamper yourself (e.g. take a bubble bath...?). Go to bed early. Sleep well.
During an exam, it's good technique to do the questions that are easiest for you first. It builds confidence, and you get the easy marks 'under your belt' before trying for the harder-to-get marks. You don't have to do the questions in the order they appear on the exam paper. In Part I you don't even have to do the components of each question in order. (In Part II, though, obviously you do have to do each component of a question in order!) In any case, be sure to CLEARLY MARK which question, and which component of a question, you are answering when you write in your answer book(s).
Plan to spend 30 minutes on each of the 5 questions. In practice, this means that if you get stuck on a question, don't spend any more than 30 minutes on it (unless you have done all of the other 4 questions satisfactorily and have time to spare at the end). In other words, if you get really stuck, don't get obsessed - move on.
P.S.: Since our PHY252H1S exam is a 9am (morning!) exam, you need to be ABSOLUTELY SURE that you will wake up on-time. Don't rely on one alarm clock; it could fail. As a backup, get e.g. a [cheap] extra alarm clock from a drug/hardware store or wherever. Or use something like MyCalls.net (99c, credit card required). Or get a friend to give you a wake-up call. Anything. Just don't walk into the exam late and expect to get extra time; we can't allow that. If you're late, you'll pay the price.