FAQs
Will the exam questions include only those you just posted or also some from quiz 1 and 2 (asked by a student who had obviously not been in class)?
The final will be drawn from ALL the questions we
have posted during the term (Q1, Q2, and Final). It will only last two hours,
not three.
As I was going through the study questions for final, I noticed questions 2 and 4 are very similar. I was wondering if you can explain to me the differences.
You are right, they are very similar questions.
Although the exact wording of the answers would of course change given the way
the questions are phrased. The first asks for market failure policy in the
abstract (subsidy, tax, etc) and then an explanation of how it applies in the
case of R&D. The second simply asks for descriptions of innovation-oriented
policy instruments. So there is a difference.
I was hoping you could help advise me on how to start preparing for the final. Is the final going to be very similar to the quizzes but longer in length? Finally, I understand that 10% of the grade in the class is based on class participation. I am curious as to how you plan on allocating grades for this category and what I need to do to get those full 10%.
We have not discussed the class participation,
except that we are aware of people who are often not present, which surely
means they are not participating. The
final will be similar to the quizzes, but longer. It will cover the whole course.
What are “blocking rights”?
Blocking rights refers to the situation where
an innovation (such as an improvement innovation) infringes a prior patent
(such as on the unimproved product) but has its own patent, so that the
improved product cannot be marketed without a license from one innovator to the
other (either way). The two patentholders can both "block" the
marketing of the improved product.
General
queries on quizzes and exams
What are the grade cutoffs in the score distribution? Where is the B+/A- split?
This is not determined until after the final. The distribution
of scores should give you some idea of how you are performing in the course.
Some suggestion of how to prepare the quiz will be very helpful.
Review the study questions online and make sure you know how to
answer them. These will serve as the basis for questions on both the quizzes
and the final.
Would you please tell me more about the first quiz that is coming next
Tuesday? How many questions will be on the quiz?
We do not know - as many as are needed. The time of
the quiz will be 45 minutes, so not too many.
Should we know all the names, events, and years in the reader?
We do not expect you to memorize everything -
concentrate on your understanding of the lectures and the study questions.
Do
we need to memorize .........? What do we need to know about .......? Will
there be short essay questions? Do we need to memorize definitions? Or, there
will just be matching? I know that there will be an essay, so are there
any topics that the essay will emphasize?
We do not answer these
kinds of questions. Use your own judgement. In studying, focus on the content
of the course, not the format of the exam.