Math 10B Syllabus
Spring 2026

Course:   Math 10B, Methods of Mathematics: Calculus, Statistics and Combinatorics ( Course Catalog)

Course Description:  The sequence Math 10A, Math 10B is intended for majors in the life sciences. Elementary combinatorics and discrete and continuous probability theory. Representation of data, statistical models and testing.

Credit Hours:  4 units  

Prerequisites:  Math 10A or Math 51 (Math 1A)

Textbook: 


• Required text book : Biocalculus, Calculus, Probability, and Statistics for the Life Sciences (custom UC Berkeley Edition) by Stewart, (ISBN: 9781305114036)


• Required text book : Discrete mathematics and its Applications by Kenneth H. Rosen (ISBN: 9781259676512)


• Recommended Book : Statistics by Freedman, Pisani, Purves (ISBN: 9780393929720)


I strongly encourage you to read the textbook regularly throughout the semester. It provides a level of detail that cannot be fully addressed in lectures, and developing this habit will be essential for your academic progress. The homework exercises are drawn directly from the text, and studying the examples carefully will clarify the methods needed to approach and solve them.

Homework:  


• Homework assignments will be announced on bCourses under Modules.


• Homework is to be submitted to Gradescope generally on Tuesday by 11:59 pm (Pacific Time). Here are instructions for how to upload your work.


• In order to accommodate for unforeseen technical difficulties, we will accept homework submitted within 24 hours from the due date without a penalty.


• There will be 12 problem sets. Your cumulative homework grade will be based on the best 10 of the 12.


• In view of the above arrangement, NO late homework will be accepted.


• If you have issues submitting your work, contact your GSI promptly.


• Assignments will be evaluated on completeness (3 points) for submitting all problems.


• You can work on the problems with your classmates, but you must write down your own version. Copying solutions from others is not accepted and is considered cheating.


• A substantial portion of the quizzes and exams will be based on the weekly problem sets. So it is extremely important for you to make sure that you understand each one of them.

Discussion sections:   Discussion sections meets on TuTh. You are required to attend the discussion section that you are enrolled in. If you need to switch discussion sections, then please contact enrollment@math.berkeley.edu. We (the instructor and GSIs) have no influence on the enrollment process.

Quizzes:   There will be four short online quizzes. The purpose of the quizzes is to make sure that you keep up with the course material. The quizzes are schedueled for Wednesdays and Thursdays in Week 4, 7, 9, 13.


• Your cumulative quiz grade will be based on the best 3 of the 4.


• There will be no makeup quizzes. If a student misses a quiz for any reason, it will be counted as 0.


• To ensure fairness across all discussion sections, you are not allowed to share quiz content or solutions with classmates until after Friday of the same week.

Exams:  There will be two midterm exams (50 min.) and a final exam (3 hr). Exams will be in-person.




• Midterm 1 is scheduled for Friday, February 20 (during lecture)


• Midterm 2 is scheduled for Friday, April 3 (during lecture)


• Final Exam is scheduled for Monday, May 11, 7:00 - 10:00 pm (Location : TBD)


• Please check the announcement on bCourses for more details regarding the exams.


It is your responsibility to make sure that you do not have any scheduling conflicts with the exams. There will be no make-up exams. As per university policy, if you do not sit the final exam, you automatically fail the course. Please check the dates now to make sure that you have no unavoidable conflicts.




• Cheatsheets will not be allowed on exams and quizzes.


• Calculators or electronic devices of any kind will not be allowed on exams and quizzes.


• Please bring your student ID to the exams.


• Academic Integrity violations will be taken seriously, and will be reported to higher authorities for disciplinary action.

Grading: There are four methods to determine your course grade:


• Method 1:   10% Homework (Best 10 out of 12),   6% Quizzes (Best 3 out of 4),   2% DI Attendance (at least 21 out of 27 discussion sessions),   22% Midterm 1,   22% Midterm 2,   38% Final Exam


• Method 2:   10% Homework (Best 10 out of 12),   6% Quizzes (Best 3 out of 4),   2% DI Attendance (at least 21 out of 27 discussion sessions),   32% Better Midterm,   50% Final Exam



• In both methods we will also consider an alternate grading scheme where the DI attendance carries no weight, instead the final exam has weight 40% (Method 1') and 52% (Method 2').


• Your grade will be computed using all four methods and then the best grade will be used to determine your course grade.


• Since there are no makeup midterm exams, if you miss one of the midterm exams then your course grade will be computed using either Method 2 or Method 2'.


• After your weighted average is calculated, letter grades will be assigned based on the standard grading scale:
  
  

  A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-	F
  97	93	90	87	83	80	77	73	70	67	63	60	<60

  
  Depending on the performance of the class, the grading cutoffs may be lowered (but not increased) in order to accommodate for class performance and to ensure that the grades are in accordance with the historical grade distributions.


Please notice that outside factors, including the need for a certain grade for admission/retention in any academic program, scholarship or transfer credit, graduation requirements or personal desire for a specific grade DO NOT appear in the above calculations, and thus are not considered in any way in the determination of your course grade. Effort, improvement, lecture attendance and participation will all dramatically improve your grade in the course in that they will allow you to do well on exams, and the final exam. They will NOT, however, actively participate in the calculation of your course grade.

Accommodations:

If you require course accommodations due to a physical, emotional, or learning disability, contact UC Berkeley's Disabled Students' Program (DSP). Notify the instructor and GSI through course email of the accommodations you would like to use. You must have a Letter of Accommodation on file with UC Berkeley to have accommodations made in the course. UC Berkeley is committed to providing robust educational experiences for all learners. With this goal in mind, we have enabled the ALLY tool for this course. You can now automatically generate "Alternative Formats" for course files and bCourses Pages. Depending on the context, these formats can include Tagged PDF, HTML, BeeLine Reader, Electronic Braille, ePub, Immersive Reader, MP3, and translated versions. For more information, watch the video entitled, "Ally Tutorial for Students at UC Berkeley.""


Questions about your DSP accommodations:
• HW and Quizzes: Contact your GSI in advance.
• Exams: We will make sure that you can take advantage of the extended time for midterm and final exams as specified in your Letter of Accommodation. This means that you can either take your midterm or final exam with the DSP proctoring service or that we will provide an additional room where you can take your exam. We will provide more information later. If you want to take advantage of any accommodation beyond this, then please contact the Head GSI at least one week before each exam. The Head GSI will arrange for your DSP exams and contact you with the arrangements.
• If the issues are not resolved, contact the professor.

Regrades:

Regrade requests will be made using the built-in regrade request feature in Gradescope. There will be a limited window of time after your graded work is made available during which the regrade request feature will be active. This time window will be announced when the scores are released to the students. Please be advised that the regrade request window is usually brief, and if you want to request a regrade, it is your responsibility to make the request during the allowed time. Please understand that while we will correct errors in the grading, we will not modify the grading rubric or negotiate over partial credit after graded papers are returned to students.

ED discussion:

The GSIs, the Head GSI, and I will be offering help on Ed Discussion Monday through Friday.Only comments/questions pertaining to the mathematical content of the course are allowed. Any postings that do not meet this criteria will be deleted and EDdiscussion privileges may be removed. As a diverse community of learners, students must strive to work together in a setting of civility, tolerance, and respect for each other and for the instructor. Conflicting opinions among members of a class are to be respected and responded to in a professional manner. There are to be no offensive comments or language.

Late Add Policy:

If you are on the waitlist for a course, you are expected to attend class and complete assignments. If a student does not attend class or does not turn in assignments before the due dates, the student will receive a 0 on all missed assignments. No exceptions will be made. Similarly, a student not on a waitlist who adds the class late will not be given additional time, nor will they be excused from the assigned work.

Academic Integrity:

Academic integrity is a cornerstone of scholarship at UCB. Upholding honesty in your work reflects your personal values and sustains the trust essential to our academic community. Acts of dishonesty undermine these principles and may lead to serious consequences under university policy, including administrative sanctions such as suspension or expulsion. By committing to integrity, you help foster a fair and meaningful learning environment for yourself and others. For more information about university policies on academic integrity, check UC Berkeley Center for Student Conduct.

Use of GenAI Tools:

In this course, our goal is to support your active learning, knowledge building, and development of critical thinking skills. To ensure that you get the most out of these experiences, we ask that you do not use GenAI tools or automated services to complete homework, quizzes, or exams. Unless a specific assignment explicitly allows their use, you must refrain from using GenAI (or other online tools) for any part of your work. This helps ensure that the work you submit truly reflects your own understanding and growth. If the use of AI/online tools is suspected, the instructor may ask you to complete a brief follow-up (oral or written) to confirm your understanding of the material. In cases where this is not possible, a zero may be given for that assignment.

Rules regarding absences and missed exams, assignments, etc.:

Lecture attendance in class is highly recommended, but not required. If you miss a discussion session, then we recommend asking a classmate for the missed material. If you miss one of the midterm exams (for example due to illness or an athletic trip), then your course grade will be computed using grading method 2 or method 2'. We will also drop two lowest homework grades and one quiz grade. These rules will be applied automatically and you do not need to inform us about your absences.

We are aware that a number of students will miss a midterm exam, quiz or a homework assignment due to a variety of reasons. This is why we have implemented generous replacement or dropping rules. The purpose of these rules is precisely to alleviate the impact of such absences. So we will not be able to offer further accommodations like make-up exams or further drops. If you think that these rules did not fully cover your absences, then you can email us at the end of the semester and we will review your case.

The only exception to the above is if you have an official Letter of Accommodation issued by the DSP office and that requests accommodation for missed exams or if your absence is related to your DSP accommodations (your DSP specialist will need to verify this with us). In this case, please contact us and we will try to find an arrangement.

Please do not share doctor's notes with us or any other documents containing private information. For privacy reasons we cannot ask for doctor's notes. Therefore, we also cannot accept them for equity reasons. Otherwise your classmates would be forced to release private information in order to receive the same accommodations. The only document that we accept is your official Letter of Accommodation issued by the DSP office.

External Support:


• For questions about enrollment, contact Marsha Snow or email enrollment@math.berkeley.edu.


• The Student Learning Center provides support for this class, including full adjunct courses, review sessions for exams, and drop-in tutoring. You can find more details about Math 51 support here .