Xronos ‘Quirks’

As a general rule, Xronos is remarkably forgiving with how it interprets answers. That being said, there are always things that are “picky” for any online homework system. Often this is because it’s “picky” in actual mathematics, and thus this isn’t so much a failure of the online system as it is a valid (but often rage-inducing) aspect of mathematics itself.

First, one of the most important (and common) issues is that of capitalization. This is true, even in mathematics, where $a$ and $A$ would be considered distinct variables. For this reason, Xronos treats them as such. For example, try the following problem;

As we see above, capitalization is important, so when looking at a problem, make sure you are using capital or lower case letters where needed!

Next up, order and format of expression being entered. Generally speaking, Xronos is quite good at interpreting what you hand it. Unless the question author has specifically designed the question to require a certain order of terms or expansion level of terms, Xronos will be able to take it regardless. For example;

Generally speaking, if Xronos doesn’t like your answer, it’s because your answer is not mathematically correct. There are some exceptions to this, and we are always refining questions and looking for errors, so if you think your answer is correct but Xronos isn’t taking it, you should email your TA to verify your answer is correct. If the answer is correct and Xronos isn’t taking it, your TA will contact either your lecturer or the Xronos team, and they will fix the problem to take the correct answer. If your answer is incorrect, the TA can help you figure out the correct answer.

Xronos Features

There are a number of features that are often missed until most of the way through the semester by students, that would have made their life vastly easier. The first such item is the “Math Editor”.