MESSAGE: 5/10

The course is over, the final grades are in!

Solutions of the final exam are posted.  You may also view final grade statistics on the 'Scores and solutions' page.  If you use the grade computer to find out your final score, email me to get your final exam grade.

I very much enjoyed teaching the course!  Thanks to everyone for excellent participation in the course: I always enjoyed getting questions from you and elaborating on fine points that were not covered in class or in the book.

Have a great summer, everyone!

(scroll down for previous messages)

MESSAGE: 4/29

Our final exam is on Thursday at 10:30 in our usual classroom.  

The best way to study for the final exam is to look over Exams 1-3 and make sure you can do all the problems in them, especially the ones where you got few points during the semester.  The final exam will have 70 points and will consist mostly of problems like those we had on previous exams.  One or two problems at most may be new.

Solutions for all exams have been posted - avail yourselves to them when you are studying (Exam 3 solutions will be posted tomorrow).

 Office hours for next week are as follows.  Please come to see me if you are having trouble with any of the material.

Day Time
Mon 9:30 - 1:30
Tue
 11:30 - 3:30
Wed
 11:30 - 3:30
Thu
 9:30-10:30, 12:30-1:30


Good luck on finals!
MESSAGE: 4/23

Exam 3 is scheduled for Wednesday, 4/28.  It will cover sections 5.4-5.6 and will be half in class and half take-home (due on Friday). I will grade the take-home part so that you can pick it up on Monday in order to have feedback before the final exam.

Final exam is set for Thursday, 5/6, at 10:30.  The final will be comprehensive.  The best way to study for the final exam is to make sure you can do all the problems that appeared on past exams and quizzes.

 
 
MESSAGE: 4/15

Exam 2 didn't turn out well, probably due to length and newness of some problems.  This is why I have decided to allow you to earn up to 6 extra points on the exam in the following way.  Solve one or more problems on a separate sheet of paper and bring it to me by Friday 4/15, together with your exam.  Any points you earn on a problem beyond what you already have on the exam will be added to your score, subject to a 6 point maximum.  Exam 2 solutions will be posted once you have turned in the extra work.

We'll  have exam 3 the last week of class.  Since this is a busy week, I will give half of the exam in class and half as a take-home.  The scores on the two halves will be added to get the actual exam score.

The grade computer has been updated (finally) to reflect that we had a homework and quizzes.  It should be working accurately, but let me know if it is spewing suspicious numbers.

 
 
MESSAGE: 4/7

Solutions to Quiz 4 are posted.

This was a warm-up for exam 2, which is scheduled for Friday, 4/9.  The exam will cover sections 4.1-4.3 and 5.1-5.3.

 
 
MESSAGE: 3/31

Solutions to Quiz 3 are posted.

Our planned quiz for Friday had to be moved to Monday of next week, as we didn't have enough time to go over homework problems.  I am anticipating that we'll have an exam on Friday of next week (4/9), covering up to 5.3.

 
 
MESSAGE: 3/12

Quiz 3 was a disaster, so I am letting everyone redo it at home over spring break.  Turn it in by Wednesday, 3/24.

We will not have a quiz the week after spring break.

 
 
MESSAGE: 3/5

Next week on Wednesday: quiz over sections 4.1-4.3.



 
MESSAGE: 2/27

Exam 1 turned out pretty well, see 'scoreboard and solutions' for exam statistics and the solutions.

New homework is posted - we won't have a quiz next week since we just started the chapter.




 
MESSAGE: 2/20

We'll have exam 1 on Monday, 2/23.  It will cover chapters 1 and 2, except the part of section 2.4 that we did not get to (hence, you do not have to worry about problems like 11,13,15c,16,17,19,21-23,24c,25,26,35 (after 11, all except 31 on the assignment sheet).

Roughly, you should expect about 50% of the exam to be computational problems, 25% problems that involve your understanding of definitions and concepts and not more than 25% problems that are proofs.  The theorem that you should know is Theorem 2.3.6, listing all the important equivalent statements that we have picked up so far.  Of course, you need to know all the rules for working with matrices as well.




 
 
MESSAGE: 2/13

Quiz 2 turned out pretty well.  See 'Scoreboard and solutions' for statistics and solutions.

Next week we will not have a quiz, but I am planning an exam for the week after next, most likely Monday, 2/23.  The exam will cover chapters 1 and 2.




 
MESSAGE: 2/6

Quiz 1 turned out pretty well.  See 'Scoreboard and solutions' for statistics and solutions.

We are planning another quiz, over sections 1.5 and 1.6 next Wednesday.  We'll look over homework in 1.5 and 1.6 on Monday.

Homework for chapter 2 is now posted.  I expect to finish chapter 2 before we have an exam.  Our first exam should be in about two weeks - I'll provide more details later.


 
MESSAGE: 1/30

We'll have a quiz next week on Wednesday over sections 1.3 and 1.4.  Expect two problems, one computational and one with a theoretical question.  You need to know the meaning of all the terms to be successful in the quiz. (Quizzes will always be on Wednesdays)

The quiz problems will either be taken directly from the homework assignment or will be very close to those problems.



 
MESSAGE: 1/23

Like we discussed in class, since most homework problems are solved in the book and the solution manual, I am changing the format of the homework.  Homework will not be turned in, but we will have short quizzes over it.  I anticipate every quiz to have two quick problems that can be done in about 10 minutes.  Problems will be in most cases identical to the assigned problems.  Quizzes will be announced and your grade will be computed according to the same formula, with quiz grades replacing the homework grades.  The one homework that you already turned in will count as one quiz.

Homework is assigned for entire chapter 1.  You are responsible for the homework in each section once we have moved to the next section.



 
MESSAGE: 1/14

Welcome to the course!  Look around to familiarize yourself with the layout.  The most important links are highlighted. Try playing with the grade computer!

Homework will be due on Fridays.  The homework page tells you what problems are due when.

These pages will usually be updated once a week.