WeBWorK at Dept of Math, HKUST

Dept of Math, HKUST

A Quick Guide for Students to Get Started with WeBWorK

What you can do with WeBWorK

WeBWorK is an interactive homework delivery system which lets you:

download hard copies of homework assignments;

submit your answers for instant checking, or submit your answers for grading.

You can attempt a problem as many times as you want before the due date, but spending a lot of time on guessing the answers is a waste of your time. Consult the textbook, or ask a fellow student, a friend, your TA or instructor for help if you have trouble figuring out your error.

Login

You can login with your ITSC username and password at : https://webwork.math.ust.hk

Printing Homework

To print a homework assignment after login to WeBWorK:

Click on the homework assignment you wish to print
Click the link: "Download a hardcopy of this homework set"
At the bottom of the page, click the button: "Generate hardcopy for selected sets and selected users"
A PDF will be generated and you should be prompted to open or download the file.
If your instructor allows the answers to homework to be posted after the due date, you can print them off very easily by clicking the box for "Solutions" at the bottom of the same page, then click the button: "Generate hardcopy for selected sets and selected users" to generate the PDF.

Checking Homework Scores

To view your scores on past homework sets after login to WeBWorK:

On the Main Menu, click "Grades"

You will see a table of the form

Set	Score	Out Of	Ind	Problems
Homework 1	1.00	10	1	C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

where the following information can be seen:

Set: The homework set
Score: The total correct (including partial credit)
Out of: Total number of problems in the homework set
Ind: Don't worry about it. It is just some kind of statistical indicator ((totalNumOfCorrectProblems / totalNumOfProblems)^2)/ AvgNumOfAttemptsPerProblem).
Problems:
- Top: A "C" means you got the problem correct. A number between 0-100 means the percentage of the problem you got correct if the question has several parts. A "0" means you never entered an answer.
- Bottom: The number of attempts. A 0 means you got it on the first try!

Entering Answers

When entering numerical answers, give 4 or 5 significant digits.
For most problems when entering numerical answers, you can enter elementary expressions such as 2^3 instead of 8, sin(3*pi/2) instead of -1, e^(ln(2)) instead of 2, (2+tan(3))*(4-sin(5))^6-7/8 instead of 27620.3413, etc.
When entering a symbolic expression, you may use the following:

o Date form

Input date format must be US Date Format (mm/dd/year)

o Operators

Operator	Input	Example
addition	+	2+x
subtraction	-	x-3
multiplication	*	3*x
division	/	3/x
exponentiation	** or ^	2**4 or 2^4
factorial	!	5!

o Brackets for grouping (but they must be used in pairs.)

Name	Symbol	Example
Parentheses	( or )	(2+3)/(x^2-2)
Brackets	[ or ]	[x+3]^3/(x^2-2)
Braces	{ or }	{x+3}/[x^(1/2)-2]

o Constants

Constant	Numeric	Example
pi	3.14159..	pix*2
e	2.71828..	e+pi

o Functions

Function	Input	Example
Logarithm (base e)	log( )	log(8)
Logarithm (base 10)	log10( ), logten( )	log10(100)
Natural Logarithm	ln( )	ln(8)
Square Root	sqrt( )	sqrt(9)
Absolute Value	abs( )	abs(-6)
Sign Function	sgn( )	sgn(-3)

For an extended list of functions and symbols available in WeBWorK, consult the MAA webpage at: http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Available_Functions