Exam Likelihood Breakdown
Skills organized by how likely they are to appear as standalone exam questions in MATH 122.
Important Disclaimer
These likelihood ratings are not official and are not endorsed by your university or professors. We have no contact with course instructors and no insider information about exam content. These ratings are based solely on our team's experience analyzing past exams, taking similar courses, and understanding typical curriculum patterns. Take this as a rough guide only — your actual exam may differ significantly. Always consult your course syllabus, professor's guidance, and official study materials as your primary resources.
How to Read This Guide
Don't skip "Essential" or "Low" skills! They're foundational — you need them to solve higher-likelihood problems.
Tested directly on every exam. Often combined with other derivative rules in multi-step problems.
A core exam topic. Expect 2-3 questions requiring chain rule, often combined with exponential/log derivatives.
Classic exam question type. Given a function on a closed interval, find absolute max/min.
Always appears on exams. Word problems involving rates of change of related quantities.
Primary integration technique tested. Expect standalone u-substitution problems on every exam.
Tested both conceptually and computationally. Expect questions on evaluating definite integrals and FTC Part 2.
A major exam topic in the integration unit. Expect standalone problems and combined with other techniques.
Tested within chain rule and product/quotient rule problems. Know the basic forms.
Usually part of optimization or curve sketching problems rather than standalone.
Appears in optimization word problems. Finding extrema is the endpoint, not usually tested in isolation.
Typically one question per exam. Finding dy/dx when y is defined implicitly.
Marginal cost/revenue problems appear regularly. Applied optimization in business contexts.
Tested through FTC applications. Understanding as accumulated change is important.
Common application problem. Setting up and evaluating integrals for area.
Appears in the later part of the course. Convergence/divergence and evaluation.
Review material. Not tested directly but used throughout as example functions.
Review material. Must know properties for derivative and integral problems.
Review material. Log properties essential for derivative and integral problems.
Core interpretation of derivative. Finding tangent line equations is commonly tested.
Important for continuity and piecewise functions. Foundation for understanding limits.
Needed to evaluate limits. Rarely tested directly but essential for limit computations.
Foundation for derivatives. Direct limit computation questions are rare, but the concept underlies all calculus.
Needed for asymptote analysis. Understanding behavior as x approaches infinity.
Foundational concept. Piecewise function continuity may be tested directly.
Must understand conceptually. Limit definition problems may appear early in the course.
Foundation for all integration. Basic antiderivative rules must be memorized.
May appear as a comprehensive problem combining multiple derivative concepts. Not typically standalone.
Occasionally tested. Using tangent line to approximate function values near a point.
Minor topic. Formula-based calculation using definite integrals.
May appear as one problem. Setting up disk/washer integrals for volumes.
Alternative to disk method. Less commonly tested than rings method.
Specialized business application. Present value of continuous income streams.
Prerequisite skill. Not directly tested but may be needed for partial fractions.
Prerequisite review. Not tested directly in MATH 122.
Prerequisite review. Function transformations not tested directly.
Review material. May appear as functions to differentiate but not tested as a topic.
Applications covered briefly. Not a major exam topic.
Business math review. Rarely tested in calculus exams.