Comments Made During First Recitation: Contents: -------------------------------------- * The Way Section Works * Homework * Quizzes * Email * Grade Disputes * Advice on Solving Math Problems and Reading the Book -------------------------------------- ******** The Way Section Works Section is primarily for homework review and doing practice problems from the worksheets. I'm also happy to answer any questions from lecture. There won't be any new material taught in section; it's really just to give you time to practice the material and straighten out any confusion you might have. I may break you up into problem-solving groups, or have a few people solve some problems on the board at the same time, or just work through an example problem on the board with students supplying the steps and justification. Class participation is not mandatory, and for that matter, neither is section. However, students who do attend and who do participate tend to do better in the course. Furthermore, class participation helps out both of us--you get to see whether you fully understand the material by having to explain it and it gives me a sense of which topics need more review. Remember that the point of section is to help improve your understanding, not to judge your understanding. I'd like it if students raised their hands to answer question. If you've already answered a question, let other students answer questions before you answer another one. This way everyone who wants to answer a question gets the chance. If you have a question, I'll be happy to answer it. Don't be afraid if you think your question is stupid; mathematicians have 17 wrong ideas before they hit upon the right one. This is the way learning naturally works. ********* Homework Homework is assigned in lecture, due the next recitation and then handed back the recitation after that. For example, in Wednesday lecture you cover Section 7.1 of the book. There's a corresponding homework that's then due in Friday lecture, and I will hand it back to you on Monday. Homework is due at the START of recitation. NO late homeworks accepted, as per the course policy. I will have a folder laid out on the desk and approximately 10 minutes into class I will put this folder into a purple zipcase. Once I do that, no more homeworks will be accepted. Do not place homeworks in my mailbox or email them to me. Homework has to be turned in during section. Students who need special accomodations for homework or quizzes should contact me as early as possible (especially if it's a recurring accomodation). For exams, you must contact the professor, as stated in his syllabus. Homework should be legible and on a decent piece of paper! Students are allowed to work together on homework, but write up your own solutions and write who you worked with at the top of the page. Also, write your section at the top of the page: section 102 for the 8-9am section and section 108 for the 12-1pm section. Each homework gets a grade of 0, 1 or 2. 0=insufficient effort and understanding. 1=noticeable effort and fair understanding. 2=strong effort and understanding. Since we don't have a grader for the course, the amount of time we have to grade each homework is very limited. If you get stuck on a problem, it's actually not in your best interest to just write down a really long "solution" and hope that we don't notice a gap in reasoning or fudged formula. It's much better if you actually write something like, "I got stuck here and was able to solve this much, but now I don't know where to go. I think X might work but I don't see exactly how to apply it." This shows us that you've thought about the problem and identified the main difficulty or maybe gotten stuck on a less important step. The point of the homework is to develop your intuition about applying the techniques, so if we see that your intuition is coming along well, it's mcuh easier for us to give partial or full credit. It also makes it easier for us to address the difficulty in section or office hours. Homework should take 2-4 hours in my estimation. If it takes less, then that's good for you, but you should set aside at least 2 hours to give yourself enough time (it works out to an average of 12 minutes per problem, but that doesn't count any time for looking over the material in the book). ********* Quizzes Quizzes occur nearly every Friday, including the first Friday. They last 10-15 minutes and are not intended to make you sweat, but rather to make sure you're keeping up with the material of the course. Typically one of the problems will be a bit harder than the others (2-4 problems to a quiz). It's also not a speed contest, so our aim is to time it well enough that students can comfortably finish it. ********** Email My email is only for administrative purposes. If you have a question or need a hint about solving the homework, you should come to office hours or section. Chances are that other students will have the same question, so this allows everyone to see the answer at the same time. I will check my email at least once a day, by 10pm. *********** Grade Disputes If you have one, tell me in office hours within two recitation's time of receiving the quiz/homework back. Please make the request in writing so that I have a written reminder of exactly what the point of contention is. Grades usually stay the same or go up, but there is the possibility of them going down so make sure your other work is correct too. ********** Advice It's a myth that the fastest solvers are the best at math. The majority of great mathematicians are actually very, very slow thinkers. When they learn things, they move through it like a bulldozer, trudging through and scooping up everything they encounter. Don't be discouraged if it takes you a long time to understand something--the point is that once you understand it, you'll understand it really well because of all the thought you put into it. For morning section especially: read the textbook for 5 minutes the night before. That way the material's fresh in your mind. Early in the morning is usually a difficult time for new information to sink in, so this reading will prepare a place for the new knowledge. Reading the textbook: take 3 minutes to glance through the section to find the main theorems and try to understand what they are saying (even if you don't understand why they are true or what good it's for). Then go back to the beginning and start reading normally. All throughout the motivational text, you'll already know what the goal is so your brain will catch the points the author is trying to make in the motivation (the problem that's trying to be solved, the fallacious solution methods, etc.). Solving the problems: Do the ones you know first. Then, if you're stuck on a problem try one of these two tactics. 1. Do some simple cases: x=0, or eliminating a variable, etc. Mathematicians always do simple examples to get a feel for a complicated problem, because you rarely can see all the intricacies going on right away. 2. Make a list of what you know. Properties of the function (e.g. trig rules, odd or even function, symmetries); the different methods you've learned for solving such a problem (e.g. integration methods like trig substition and integration by parts); etc. The more information you bring up, the better chance you'll have at hitting upon one that will help you solve the problem.