In-person test? Here’s my MAT135 experience!

Hello, hello! Just a few more days until Reading Week: let’s pull through this week together!

Last Friday, I took my first in-person test. There are no words to describe how tensed I was during the day, or even for the whole week before. It was pretty terrifying to have my first in-person test at U of T, and I believe a lot of us are feeling (or felt) the same way. Since I did a few things that were helpful to prepare for the MAT135 test, I thought I’d share them with you all!

I went to office hours. I try to make time for my instructor’s weekly in-person office hours whenever I can. Did you know that you can use office hours to work on math problems or have a casual conversation with your instructor? If you want to prepare for the office hour, I recommend organizing questions on a piece of paper to stay focused. And if you've never gone before, you’ll be surprised about how other students have similar questions too!

I also attended online drop-ins throughout the week. They are extremely helpful. I went with questions to these too, but you don’t really have to. Usually, I stayed for the whole session even if I only had one question: I used the time to listen to what other questions were being asked. Sometimes, I even got the chance to explain what I know, which I felt was good practice to test my knowledge.

To find drop in hours information:

I also took advantage of the time to practice math problems while waiting for my turn to ask questions. It gave me a sense of community to be solving math problems while others were asking math questions!

You’ve probably heard this a lot of times (and this advice still applies to MAT135): Practice makes perfect!

You can check out the ASSU Past Test Library and the Old Exam Repository!

If you’re wondering what extra resources you should find (as I found this year's MAT135 slightly more conceptual than past years), I suggest using lecture materials from other course instructors other than your own lecture materials. I found that every instructor prepares different questions and/or food for thought in their lecture materials, so you get to have a variety of questions to test your understanding of the concepts.

To find additional lecture materials:

Okay, now for the in-person test part: I only brought my calculator, stationaries, and T-card. We didn’t have an assigned seat. Everyone got to choose their own seats.

I left my house 45 minutes before the test, even though it was only a 15 minutes walk. I was so glad that I did. It was dark, and it was raining that evening too. It felt chaotic. I also got lost, so you can imagine how anxious I would be if I didn’t leave my house earlier.

But after all the concern of getting there, overall, it was a “normal” experience. Everything was smooth. I checked the test instructions on Quercus, including the test location, multiple times before the test. My test location had five proctors. The proctors recorded our student number and test number (each answer sheet has a test number). They also reminded us of the time every 30 minutes, and at the last 15 minutes, they called out the time in 5-minute intervals. Nothing during the process was surprising, so it was alright! What’s left now is the result….

Have a great reading week!