Here is a general comment of "synchrony" of class work. Most of you are used to the "small class" format, where homework is assigned after the material is covered, and tests cover only homework that was graded and returned. This is not possible in a larg class such as our. There is a latency (time-delay) in each step of this process. Thus, homework will often anticipate class discussion if the textbook is clear enough for your to learn the technique from it.

Similarly, it is inefficient for you to prepare for a test on very old material, while scrambling to learn new and current material. There is a place for "long-term" learning in the final. Remember, timely tests are as useful to the instructor for calibrating his pace and level, as it is for the student to check their progress.

Question:
i was wondering if we were accountable for the word-problems such such as the examples in section 1.5 illustrate...thank you
Answer:
I don't (usually) have the text book next to me when I read and answer e-mail. So a question about a specific problem in the book needs more info than just it's number. But I can guess what you are asking converning the "word-problems". If you are referring to examples where a verbal description of a physical process has to be translated into a series of mathematical problems, then the answer is "no, not on this test, but yes on the midterm."

But direct questions concerning the techniques you have learned will be on the test.

Question:
Quick question, will the chapter 1 review problems be collected Wed. or are they just recommended practice?
Answer:
Yes, they will be collected and the grader will check a subset of them. I realize that this is a lot of writing and homework counts only in the aggregate. So do a reasonable selection of the problems. Identify the applicable method.

Question:
Some of the materials like exact and Bernoilli have not been covered yet, can't it wait until we have discussed these topics in class? Answer:
Solving exact equations is straightforward and explained very well in the book. So that method is included in the "doable" strategies. You may skip Bernoulli's equation for now and assign such a problem to the "not-doable" category.

Question:
I read what you posted on the web site about how far to take the recipe for solving on the review problems homework assignment (1-30 in the chapter 1 review section), but I still have a question. On the homework, if a differential equation is of the kind that I would not be able to solve (the recipe says "quit"), should I just put "can't solve" or something along those lines on my homework paper? Answer:
Yes, the recipe or flowchart ends with exact equations for now. So indicate this "exit" with an appropriate comment.

Question:
Another thing: I read a bit about the technique for solving homogeneous differential equations (dy/dx = f(y/x)) in the text, and it seems pretty straightforward; should I still put "can't solve" on my homework paper (since it's not covered by the current solution recipe), or would there be a problem with solving such equations anyway? Answer:
What you say is true. But we must make a selection due to time constraints. It is sensible of you to make the observation that "homogeneous DE" are "straightforward" because someday you may need to remind yourself of that. However, we won'nt make much use of this fact in this course.