ITU MAT 103E / 103 midterm
Mathematics I midterm: 20 multiple-choice questions, 120 minutes, −¼ per wrong answer, no calculator. Scope is syllabus weeks 1–7, i.e. Thomas 15th edition 1.1–4.7 (no L'Hôpital, related rates included). MAT 103E and MAT 103 sit the same exam. This page gives a topic map that follows the official syllabus section by section, the guessing math and a study plan. It does not promise past exam questions: no current-format official paper is public.
Last checked: Oct 11, 2026, against mathavuz.itu.edu.tr and the Fall 2026 syllabi.
Exam facts
From the MAT Common Courses page and the Fall 2026 syllabi. The department warns that dates or rooms can change unexpectedly, so check the page once more before the exam.
| Date | Saturday, Nov 28, 2026, 10:00–12:00MAT 104/E is the same day, 14:00–16:00. Mid-term break is Nov 16–20; the exam is on the Saturday of the teaching week after it. |
| Place | Ayazağa CampusSections with the DZB building code sit the exam on Tuzla Campus. Your room and list number appear one week before, in the top-right menu after logging in to mathavuz. |
| Format | 20 multiple-choice questions, 120 minutesOptical form, pencil. The form has A–E bubbles for every question; the rules don't state the number of options, so 5 is our inference from the form. That is 6 minutes per question on average. |
| Score | Correct − wrong/4A negative raw score counts as 0. Blank answers score 0. |
| Rules | No calculator, no paper of your ownWork in the blank space on the question sheet; on request a proctor can give you one signed A4 sheet. No entry after 30 minutes, no leaving in the first 45. Bring your student ID plus a national ID card, driver's license or passport. |
| Language | MAT 103E and 103: one examEveryone registered in the course sits the same midterm on the same day, regardless of section or course language (department ABET report). |
| Weight | 40% of your gradeSeven quizzes 20% in total, final 40%. Miss the midterm and you get a VF and can't take the final. 70% attendance is required; letter grades are relative. The raw-score-to-grade conversion isn't published in public sources. |
Sources: MAT Common Courses · MAT103E syllabus · MAT103 syllabus · pool exam rules · optical form · ABET report 2017–2022 · academic calendar (Turkish)
Midterm topics, week by week
Syllabus: "Topics of the Midterm Exam: Weeks 1-7". Section numbers are from the syllabus, titles from the table of contents of Thomas' Calculus, 15th edition. The first three quizzes fall in these weeks too.
| Wk | Thomas 15e sections | Quiz |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.1, 1.2, 1.3Functions and their graphs · combining functions, shifting and scaling graphs · trigonometric functions | |
| 2 | 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4Rates of change and tangent lines · limit of a function and limit laws · the precise definition of a limit (ε-δ) · one-sided limits | |
| 3 | 2.5, 2.6Continuity · limits involving infinity, asymptotes of graphs | Q1 |
| 4 | 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5Tangent lines and the derivative at a point · the derivative as a function · differentiation rules · derivatives of trigonometric functions | Q2 |
| 5 | 3.6, 3.7, 3.9, 4.1The chain rule · implicit differentiation · related rates · extreme values on closed intervals | |
| 6 | 4.2, 4.3The Mean Value Theorem · monotonic functions and the first derivative test | Q3 |
| 7 | 4.4, 4.7Concavity and curve sketching · antiderivatives |
Numbering follows the non-"Early Transcendentals" 15th edition: the syllabus lists weeks 10–11 as "Transcendental Functions (7.1–7.3, 7.5–7.7)", a structure only that edition has (Pearson table of contents). If you study from an older edition, watch out: here 3.9 is related rates and 4.7 is antiderivatives. Week 8 on the syllabus is integrals, which is not midterm material.
−¼ per wrong answer: when to guess
Correct +1, wrong −¼, blank 0. Picking at random among the options left, the expected score per question is:
| Options you can rule out | Expected score |
|---|---|
| 0 · blind guess | 0 |
| 1 | +1/16 |
| 2 | +1/6 |
| 3 | +3/8 |
Rule: mark an answer if you think it has a better than 20% chance of being right. Why: p − (1 − p)/4 > 0 exactly when p > 0.2.
Blind guess: with 5 options it's worth 0 on average but adds risk. If you can't rule anything out, a blank gives the same expected score with no risk.
Rule out even one option and guessing pays. Six questions where you've ruled out two options are worth 1 point on average.
Pace: 120 minutes / 20 questions = 6 minutes. Past 8 minutes on one question, rule out what you can, mark or leave it, and come back.
The 5-option assumption comes from the A–E bubbles on the optical form. If the exam turns out to have 4 options, even a blind guess is worth +1/16, so leave nothing blank.
7 days to the midterm
Go through the syllabus weeks in order. End each day with 4–5 multiple-choice questions on a timer: 6 minutes each.
- Day 1: Functions (1.1–1.3). Domain and range, composition and its domain, shifting/scaling/reflecting, radians and unit-circle values.
- Day 2: Limits (2.1–2.4). Secant slopes, limit laws, one-sided limits, sin θ/θ. In ε-δ, finding the largest δ for a given ε.
- Day 3: Continuity and asymptotes (2.5–2.6). Points and types of discontinuity, continuous extension, the Intermediate Value Theorem, limits at infinity, horizontal/vertical/oblique asymptotes.
- Day 4: Derivatives (3.1–3.3, 3.5, 3.6). Derivative from the definition, differentiability at a point, the rules, trig derivatives, chain rule from a table of values.
- Day 5: Implicit differentiation, related rates, extrema (3.7, 3.9, 4.1). Tangent and normal lines, rates of change, absolute max/min on a closed interval.
- Day 6: Mean Value Theorem, curve sketching, antiderivatives (4.2–4.4, 4.7). Rolle/MVT hypotheses and finding c, increasing/decreasing, concavity and inflection points, antiderivatives with an initial condition.
- Day 7: Full mock. 20 questions, 120 minutes, no calculator, scored as C − W/4. Sort your mistakes by topic and spend the remaining hours on the week you missed most.
3 days to the midterm
- Day 1: Functions, limits, continuity (1.1–2.6). Morning: quick 1.x review. Afternoon: limit techniques and types of discontinuity.
- Day 2: Derivatives and applications (3.1–4.1). Rules, chain rule, implicit differentiation, related rates, extrema on a closed interval.
- Day 3: 4.2–4.4 and 4.7, then a mock. Morning: MVT, curve sketching, antiderivatives. Afternoon: a full 120-minute mock, scored with the guessing rule.
Free official resources
ITU's own material, open to everyone. Start here.
ITU OpenCourseWare videos. MAT 103/E lectures recorded by Mathematics Department instructors: MAT103E (English) · MAT103 (Turkish). The department says they "cannot replace the lessons" and are meant as support and review. Good for understanding a topic; they don't include exam-format mocks or the −¼ strategy.
Syllabus and rules. MAT103E / MAT103 syllabus, and the optical form guide (you write your list number in the student ID field, not your student number).
Exam Archive and worksheets. On mathavuz, with an ITU login. That's where the current-format official papers are.
Old official midterms (2007–2011)
The only public official MAT 103 papers: from the department's old pages, via web.archive.org. Scanned PDFs with handwritten official solutions (except 2007).
The MAT 103E pack isn't on sale yet.
In the works: topic lessons that follow the syllabus weeks, original mocks in the real format (20 questions, 120 minutes, C − W/4 scoring) and solutions that show which mistake each wrong option comes from. The questions are ours; we don't use past exam questions. We'll tell you the day it opens.
Questions
When is the ITU MAT 103E midterm?
Saturday, November 28, 2026, 10:00–12:00 (120 minutes), on Ayazağa Campus; sections with the DZB building code sit the exam on Tuzla Campus. Your room shows up one week before the exam after you log in to mathavuz.itu.edu.tr.
How many questions, and do wrong answers cost points?
20 multiple-choice questions. Raw score = correct answers − one quarter of wrong answers; if that is negative, it counts as 0. So 4 wrong answers cancel 1 correct one. The optical form has A–E bubbles for each question, so we assume 5 options: a blind guess is worth 0 on average, and once you can rule out one option, guessing pays.
What topics are on the MAT 103E midterm?
Weeks 1–7 of the syllabus, Thomas' Calculus 15th edition: 1.1–1.3 (functions, trigonometry), 2.1–2.6 (limits, ε-δ, continuity, asymptotes), 3.1–3.3 and 3.5–3.7 (derivatives, chain rule, implicit differentiation), 3.9 (related rates), 4.1–4.4 (extrema, Mean Value Theorem, curve sketching) and 4.7 (antiderivatives). L'Hôpital's Rule is week 11, so it is on the final.
Do MAT 103 and MAT 103E take the same exam?
Yes. According to the department's ABET report, everyone registered in the course takes the same midterm and final on the same day, regardless of section or course language; the exam is printed in both languages.
Is a calculator allowed?
No. Calculators and your own paper are banned; you work in the blank space on the question sheet, and on request a proctor can give you one signed A4 sheet. Fill in the optical form in pencil. No entry after the first 30 minutes, and nobody leaves in the first 45 minutes.
How much is the midterm worth?
40%. Seven quizzes are 20% in total and the final is 40%. Skipping the midterm means a VF and no final; 70% attendance is required. Letter grades are relative. How the raw score maps to a 100-point grade is not published in public sources.
Where are MAT 103E past exams?
Official papers in the current 20-question format are in the mathavuz Exam Archive, which needs an ITU login. The only public official papers are written (open-ended) midterms from 2007–2011, from the old curriculum and in a different format. This page links to them on web.archive.org. We don't sell past exam questions.
Is this an official ITU page?
No. Vizekit is an independent study resource, not affiliated with ITU. We took the date, format and scope from ITU's own pages and link to each of them.