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<p>I wouldn’t play that game. Just saying. :)</p>
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<p>I probably wouldn’t even have included this much info until the 48 hour moratorium on discussions for FRQ’s.</p>
<p>That being said, you’re guaranteed to lose 1 point for those offenses. Whether you will lose more or not will depend largely on how much those questions are worth and how much you trivialized the question in the process.</p>
<p>For instance, when you’re solving separable differential equations, and you’re working with an equation where you end up with a ln |something| or (something)^2, the solution process will end up with you eventually having to decide whether a positive solution exists or a negative one does, based on your initial condition. If you have (something)^3, then you have effectively trivialized the problem, and may be ineligible for future points.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you’re doing sign analysis with (some quadratic) = (some constant) vs. (some cubic) = (some constant), then they’ll usually read with you unless the reader senses that your adjustment was malicious and intended to simplify the problem (i.e. I don’t know how to solve x^3 - x - 2 = 0, but I do know how to solve x^2 - x - 2 = 0 by factoring, so let’s see… oops, I wrote x^2, and keep going… <em>whistles innocently, hoping no one noticed</em>)</p>